Easy. Moist. Lemony. These are words that describe this cake, but they in no way do it justice.

Amazing? Now, that’s more like it.

I made this cake over the weekend with the intention of including it in part 2 of my “When Life Gives You Meyer Lemons” series. But then I decided this cake needed its own post. It is that special.

This lemon cake recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s French Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon. It appears on her blog, as well as in her fantastic book A Homemade Life.

Molly’s recipe calls for traditional lemons and you can most certainly use them. It’s just that I won 5 pounds of Meyer lemons recently, so I’ve been kind of Meyer lemon crazy. I’m completely addicted to these lemons and I’m not sure what I’ll do when I have no more left. I’m definitely going to get a dwarf tree this spring…one that can come inside for the winters so I’ll always have some of these wonderful fruits here in New York.

Molly mentions in the book that you could substitute 1/2 cup ground almonds for 1/2 cup of the flour. I think that if you’re gluten-free, you could use all almond flour. The texture will change, of course, but I think it will still work.

In the ingredients department, I made three changes to Molly’s recipe: I substituted white spelt flour for the all purpose flour, I used olive oil instead of the canola oil, and I added my candied Meyer lemon peel with lavender instead of the lemon zest. As far as technique goes, I used a springform pan (she recommends a 9 inch round one) and I pricked the cake all over before drizzling the syrup. Everything else is pretty much the same. It’s a great recipe…

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This post is linked to Amy Green’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesday!

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Recipe for Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Adapted from the recipe for French Style Yogurt Cake in A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg.
Serves 8.

Ingredients

For the cake:

*1 1/2 cups white spelt flour or use all purpose unbleached flour or almond flour if you need it to be gluten-free
*2 teaspoons baking powder
*pinch of sea salt
*2 teaspoons candied Meyer lemon peel or use Meyer lemon zest or regular lemon zest
*1/2 cup plain organic yogurt
*1 cup organic sugar
*3 large eggs preferably organic and free-range
*1/2 cup fruity olive oil melted butter would work, too

For the syrup:

*1/4 cup organic powdered sugar
*1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice or regular lemon juice

For the icing:

*1 cup organic powdered sugar
*3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice or regular lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch springform pan with olive oil, and flour the bottom of the pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the candied lemon peel or lemon zest and mix well.
3. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs and olive oil. Whisk well to combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk again to combine
4. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I suggest you start checking after 25 minutes: you do not want to overbake it.
5. Cool the cake for 15 minutes and then remove the sides of the pan. Prick the cake all over with a fork, whisk the syrup ingredients together, and then drizzle the syrup all over the cake. The syrup will seep into all those fork holes you just made, and this is a very good thing.
6. Allow the cake to cool for another 30 minutes or so and then whisk the icing ingredients together. Using a offset spatula (or a spoon), cover the top of the cake with the icing. You can serve the cake immediately, or wait 45 minutes to 1 hour and the icing will harden.