Lemon and cranberry olive oil cake
A delicious and easy lemon and cranberry olive oil cake. The texture of this dessert made with olive oil is perfect, the combination of tartness from the lemon and cranberry and the sweetness makes this a wonderful dessert. Perfect served with an afternoon coffee, as a sweet breakfast, and of course, as dessert after a delicious meal.
Growing up in a Greek home, olive oil was a staple both in savoury, but also in sweet recipes. Olive oil was used to make everything from Authentic Greek Salad Dressing Recipe (Easy & Homemade) to rich saucy dishes like Stewed green peas, but it was also used in desserts. My parents very rarely used butter and so everything from cookies like Isli to famous desserts like Portokalopita (Greek orange cake) relied heavily on olive oil.
Why I love this recipe
If you have never baked with olive oil, you are in for a treat! The olive oil gives a great flavour and texture to cakes and I find it so much easier to work with than butter. No need to bring anything to room temperature, the way you have to with butter!
I like the fact that I can use either fresh or frozen cranberries. When cranberries are on sale and in season, I stock up and put extras in the freezer.
This lemon and cranberry olive oil cake looks gorgeous, and is also the perfect balance of sweet and tart. I have not yet served it to anyone who hasn’t loved it! I am pretty convinced that you will love it too!
Key ingredients
The ingredients listed below are what you will need to make this super simple, ever popular lemon and cranberry olive oil cake. For the ingredient amounts, and detailed instructions, be sure to scroll all the way down to the Recipe Card.
Cranberries This cake requires either fresh or frozen cranberries, not dried cranberries. I like to stock up on cranberries around Thanksgiving and Christmas, when they are easier to find. I freeze them directly in the bags they are purchased it.
Flour I use all purpose flour in this recipe. This is also known as regular or plain flour.
Baking powder & baking soda Combined, these two ingredients help the cake rise beautifully
Lemon zest I use a microplaner or small grater to prepare my lemon zest. I wash my lemons first and try to use organic lemons whenever possible.
Sugar The perfect sweetness of this cake comes from white granulated sugar. Sweetness, without a caramel flavour.
Eggs Unless otherwise indicated, all recipes in this website (and most places) use large eggs.
Lemon juice After zesting my lemons, I juice them to get pure, fresh lemon juice. Nothing beats it!
Milk I have made this recipe with all sorts of milk, including non-dairy milk. Everything works out beautifully.
Olive oil I use Greek olive oil in this recipe. It is the most flavourful and fragrant in my opinion!
Icing sugar If I add the glaze to the cake, I use icing sugar combined with lemon juice. Super simple, but a great addition to the cake.
How to make
Preparation
There are a few things I do to get my ingredients ready before I start assembling this cake. First, I coat the cranberries with some flour. Next, I rub the lemon zest in with the sugar; this helps to release all the fragrant oils. Next stop…preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Instructions
Step 1
Mix together the eggs, sugar and zest using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. Then, add in the liquid ingredients.
Step 2
With the mixer speed on low, add in the dry ingredients. Add in the cranberries, being careful not to crush them.
Step 3
Grease your bundt pan, pour in the batter, and bake in the middle rack of your oven for approximately 60 minutes.
Step 4
Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes once fully baked and then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Step 5
If adding glaze, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice together and whisk well until combined. Pour slowly over completely cooled cake and enjoy!
Baking tips
Whether you use fresh or frozen cranberries, it is really important to toss them in a bit of flour. That way you help keep them suspended in the batter versus sinking to the bottom (which them becomes the top) of your cake!
Be sure to grease your bundt pan well. I know that many recipes say to coat with butter and then a light dusting of flour. If that works for you, great. Honestly though, for me, the best way to grease my pans is to use a cooking spray liberally.
The lemon in this cake is a key ingredients. Don’t skimp here. Use the grated zest of beautiful lemons (organic if you have them) and definitely use fresh squeezed lemon juice. The bottled stuff is just not the same!
The glaze on this cake is optional. It is lovely, but really the cake is good enough without it. If you prefer you dust the top of the cake with some icing sugar (the way I do with this Marble cake.)
Recipe substitutions
I usually use lactose-free milk or dairy-free milk in this recipe because we almost always have it available at home. But, you can use any milk you like. For a creamier, richer flavour use full fat (usually 3.5%) milk in the recipe.
I know that I said you should only use fresh lemon juice, and I maintain this position! However, if you only have a good quality bottled lemon juice, I guess I can accept that you use that 🙂
I suppose you can use dried cranberries in this recipe (note: I have not done this myself). I would add about 1 1/2 cups of dried cranberries (I think 🙂 ).
Recipe variations
You can use orange zest and orange juice instead of lemon if you prefer. If that is what you have on hand, or if you think you would like the orange instead, check out this recipe for Orange and cranberry olive oil cake.
Maybe you want the lemon flavour, but would prefer blueberries to cranberries! No worries, check out this Lemon and blueberry olive oil cake.
I love to make this recipe as a bundt cake, but if you want to you can use a 10 inch round cake pan, and you can even turn this recipe into muffins. You will probably get 12 -16 large or 24 – 36 medium size muffins from this recipe. Adjust the baking time because it will certainly not take as long for the muffins to bake. If you use these Easy banana muffins as a guide, the muffins should take about 25 minutes to bake, but definitely keep an eye on them! Muffins are ready when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
How to serve
I love coffee cakes like this one. They make a great sweet breakfast, a lovely dessert for an afternoon tea, and they are lovely enough to serve at the end of a dinner party. If you want to be decadent, add a bit of freshly whipped cream to every slice.
Storing
This cake keeps really well at room temperature for up to 5 days. Any longer, simply keep it in the refrigerator.
This cake also freezes really well. Once entirely cooled (and not glazed) wrap it very well in freezer safe plastic wrap and place in a freezer safe bag. To serve, simply defrost at room temperature and then add the glaze if you wish.
Sometimes, when I know that pieces of this cake will be used to add a sweet pick me up to a take-along work or school lunch, or as a grab and go breakfast, I freeze individual portions. I slice the cake, wrap it well in plastic wrap and place in a freezer safe bag. So convenient, and so good.
Related recipes
If you love this cake, then I know you will absolutely love these too! Let me know your favourite!
Orange and cranberry olive oil cake
Lemon and blueberry olive oil cake
Greek yogourt cake with lemon
Olive oil cake with lemon (a.k.a. einai keiki mori)
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Recipe
Lemon and cranberry olive oil cake
Equipment
- 1 Bundt cake pan
- 1 stand or hand held mixer
- 3 Mixing bowls (medium and small)
Ingredients
- 12 ounce bag of cranberries (frozen is fine) see Recipe Notes
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour see Recipe Note
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp grated lemon zest tightly packed
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅔ cup lemon juice
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 cup olive oil
For the glaze
- ¾ cup icing sugar
- 1½ tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Set rack to the middle and preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Take 1/4 cup flour and add it to the cranberries. Toss until the cranberries are well coated. Set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.2¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 12 ounce bag of cranberries (frozen is fine)
- In another bowl combine the sugar and grated lemon zest. Use your fingers to rub the two together until you end up with sugar that has a light yellow hue. This action of rubbing the two together helps to release the fragrant oils from the lemon zest, enhancing the flavour.2 tbsp grated lemon zest, 1½ cups granulated sugar
- In the bowl of your stand mixer beat together the eggs, sugar and zest. Beat for 5 minutes and then slowly add in the liquids (lemon juice, milk and olive oil). Beat for another 2 – 3 minutes.3 large eggs, ⅔ cup lemon juice, ⅓ cup milk, 1 cup olive oil
- In the meantime, whisk to combine the rest of the flour with the baking powder, salt, and baking soda.1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt
- With the mixer speed set to low, slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until just well combined (you no longer see any flour). Next, add in your flour coated cranberries and again, mix only until incorporated at low speed (you can also do this part using a rubber spatula). Be careful not to mix to quickly or too long as you do not want to crush your cranberries.
- Grease your bundt pan with cooking spray or a light coating of vegetable oil. Pour in the batter and then use a knife to swirl the batter a bit, in order to help distribute the cranberries evenly.
- Bake in the middle rack of your oven for approximately 60 minutes.
- Allow the cake to cool in the bundt pan for approximately 15 minutes before removing it. Set is to cool completely on a baking rack.
Prepare glaze
- Whisk together the icing sugar with the lemon juice. It should be relatively thick, but still runny. You should be able to pour the glaze on the cake, without it running completely off the cake. Adjust the consistency if you need to with either more icing sugar, or more lemon juice.¾ cup icing sugar, 1½ tbsp lemon juice
- Once the cake is completely cooled, pour the glaze over it. Enjoy!