This rosemary olive oil cake is the perfect cake for when you're wanting something fresh, flavorful, a little unexpected, elegant and super easy to throw together at the last minute. This cake is topped with a tart, slightly bitter and sweet reduced grapefruit glaze.
This rustic cake is as perfect as "cake for breakfast," as it is for a simply beautfiul dessert to end a meal. Make this while citrus is at it's peak!
In a few words, this cake is best described as:
- Fresh
- Vibrant
- Notes of pine
- Balanced with fruity olive oil
- Buttery
- Sweet
- Golden and toasted exterior
- Moist and tender interior
- Bright, tart, sweet and slightly bitter graprfruit glaze
- Perfect for snacking, breakfast and dessert!
For more light and bright snacking cakes, try this Almond Cake, Lemon olive oil loaf cake, Chocolate olive oil loaf cake with blood orange glaze, or Orange glazed cranberry bread.
The ingredient list
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Granulated or super fine sugar
- Grapefruits (zest and fresh juice)
- Fresh rosemary
- Lemon extract
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- Milk
- Powered sugar
From these ingredients you will make the rosemary olive oil cake and the fresh grapefruit glaze.
Baking pans and baking tools
To make this rosemary olive oil cake, you will need:
- 9 inch (23 cm) spring form or round cake pan
- a 9x9 (23 cm) square pan could also work
- Stand mixer with whisk attachement
- Parchment paper
- Zester
- Electric juicer or reamer
- Small sauce pan
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- All purpose flour: To make this gluten free, I would try using this 1:1 baking flour
- Grapefruit: Any winter citrus would work well in this cake
- Lemons, oranges or pomelos
- Rosemary: This adds a nice piney background flavor. try to keep it if possible.
- Lemon, vanilla and almond extracts: these are flavor enhancers
- They are technically optional
- The almond extract is paired with vanilla to enhance the vanilla flavor
- Milk: A plant based milk can be used in this recipe to make it dairy free
step by step instructions
1: Preheat the oven and prep the pan for baking.
2: Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. set aside.
3: Flavor the sugar by adding the rosemary and zesting the grapefruit into the sugar. Whisk the sugar, zest and rosemary together until the texture of the flavored sugar resembles wet sand.
4: Whisk the eggs into the sugar on high until the mixture is thick and light yellow in color.
5: Stream in the olive oil and milk with the mixer on medium and low speed. Mix until everything is well combined.
6: Stir in the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7: Bake at 350 F (177 C) for 40-45 minutes. Cool the cake and prepare the glaze.
8. Extract the juice from the grapefruits. Pour the juice into a small sauce pan. Heat the juice over medium high heat until it reduces down to 2-3 tablespoons (30-45 ml).
9: Whisk the reduced grapefruit juice into the powdered sugar until smooth and well combined.
10: Pour the grapefruit glaze over the cooled cake. Slice the cake, serve and enjoy!
Other olive oil sweet treats to try
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rosemary olive oil cake
Equipment
- parchment paper
- reamer and zester
- small sauce pan
Ingredients
rosemary olive oil cake
- 1 ¾ c (210 g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 c (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
- 2-3 tbsp grapefruit zest (about 1-2 large)
- 1 tsp (5 ml) lemon extract
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 c (237 ml) olive oil
- ½ c (118 ml) milk, room temperature
grapefruit glaze
- 2-3 tbsp (30-45 ml) reduced grapefruit juice
- 1 c ( 125 g) powdered sugar
Instructions
rosemary olive oil cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Lightly grease and line the botton of a 9" (23 cm) spring form pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together until well combined.
- Pour the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Add the rosemary and zest the grapefruit straight into the sugar. On low speed, grind the zest and rosemary into the sugar for about 30 seconds. Pour in the extracts. Whisk the extracts into the sugar mixture for another 30 seconds.
- Add the eggs to the sugar and whisk on high speed for 4-5 minutes. The mixture should be thick and light yellow in color. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer on medium speed, stream in the olive oil. Once all the olive oil is added, increase the speed to high for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, stream in the milk.
- Stir in the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the olive oil cake at 350 F (177 C) for 40-45 minutes. The top will be golden brown. The center of the cake should bounce back when lightly pressed and the edges of the cake should pull away slighly from the pan. While the cake bakes, make the grapefruit glaze.
- Cool the cake in the cake pan placed on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Remove the sides of the springfrom pan from the cake. Gently slide the cake off the pan using the parchment on the bottom. Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature while still on the cooling rack.
grapefruit glaze
- Slice open the same grapefruits used in the cake batter. Using an electric juicer or reamer, extract all the juice. Pour the juice into a small sauce pan. Heat the juice over medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes. Once the juice has reduced down to 2-3 tablespoons (30-45 ml) remove the pan from the heat. Pour the reduced juice into a bowl to cool to room temperature.
- Pour the powdered sugar into a bowl. Whisk in 1 tablespoon (15 ml) reduced juice into the powdered sugar at a time until you achieve your desired taste and consistency.
- Pour the glaze over the room temperature cake. Allow time for the glaze to set. Enjoy!
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