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Grapefruit & Mint Olive Oil Cake

grapefruit mint olive oil cake with red grapefruit slices as garnish on a scalloped edge plate
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This looks fancy but really all you need is one bowl and one pan to turn out a stellar cake for afternoon tea, a ladies brunch, or a fancy snack.

Ingredients

Scale

For the cake:
2 T chopped mint
2 T grapefruit zest (from one large grapefruit)
1 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 C grapefruit juice
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

For the glaze:
1/4 C grapefruit juice
1 T honey
2 C powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan with a circle of parchment paper. Then grease and flour the bottom and sides – using butter or non-stick spray and tapping any excess flour out. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the mint, zest, and sugar. Rub everything together using your fingers until the sugar resembles wet sand.

Whisk the eggs into the sugar aggressively for about one minute. They should lighten in color a bit. Add the olive oil and grapefruit juice and whisk to combine.

Add the flour and sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and salt over evenly over the top. Stir just until no dry flour remains.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-33 minutes, or until the cake is light golden brown and springs back when gently pressed in the center. Err on the side of just slightly underbaked. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

To make the glaze whisk together the grapefruit juice, honey, and powdered sugar. Pour over the cake, using a spatula to coax it to the edges.

Notes

Use a good olive oil for this, but don’t break the bank and the riper the grapefruit the better. I use pink or red.

Also the glaze is totally optional – the cake is good enough that it totally stands on its own, but people like glaze so… 

Speaking of glaze, it should be pourable but not runny. I needed to gently push the glaze to edges so it would slowly drip down the sides. If you need it thicker or thinner you can add more powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time, or more grapefruit juice a teaspoon at a time. 

Keywords: olive oil cake, winter citrus dessert, olive oil dessert, easy fancy cake, afternoon tea cake

Find it online: https://joeats.net/home/olive-oil-cake/