Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Thyme

 

Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Thyme

Cook's Notes: 
A celebratory cake for Inauguration Day. It's luscious flavor studded with bits of lemon with a lemon glaze make it an irresistible cake. Using olive oil cuts down on "bad" cholesterol and saturated fat in your baking. It's considered a "good" fat, unlike butter. Adding thyme adds a flavor dimension complimenting the lemon. I used 4 small mini bundt pans. 

A muffin pan lined with cupcake liners works fine too and batter makes 8 cakes. Recipe adapted from FoodNetworkMagazine.  
The cake was paired with  Roasted Pear and Butternut Squash  Soup. https://sockfairies.blogspot.com/2021/01/roasted-pear-and-butternut-squash-soup.html

Cake Ingredients: 

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup whole milk or half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon finely minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme, plus sprigs for garnish

For the Glaze:

• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 to 2 lemons)
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Milk as needed

Directions:

• Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees. Spray PAM on mini Bundt pans or use cupcake liners in muffin tins.
• Pulse the granulated sugar and lemon zest in a blender until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, then gradually pour in the olive oil and milk, pulsing until emulsified into a thin batter, about 30 seconds. Don't over blend or the cakes will be too puffy.
• Whisk 1 cup flour, the baking powder, salt and thyme in a small bowl. Add to the blender in 2 batches, pulsing lightly until just combined; stop to scrape down the sides of the blender as needed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the cakes just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and spring back when lightly touched, 28 minutes for 4 mini Bundt pans and 22 to 24 minutes if using a muffin pan. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the sides with a small knife and invert the cakes onto a rack.
• Mix glaze ingredients, drizzle over top.