Baking With Olive Oil

This delicious olive oil cake is moist and fragrant, serve it in slices as it is, or with clotted cream and raspberries as a dessert  

275g/10oz caster sugar                                                                 

3 medium eggs

Zest and juice of 1 1/2 unwaxed lemons

120mls/4floz extra virgin olive oil

100ml/3 ½ floz milk

275g/10oz plain flour, sifted

1 level tbsp baking powder, sifted

1 pack fondant icing

Icing sugar for dusting

2 tbsp lemon curd  

For decoration: 1 tbsp caster sugar

Zest of two unwaxed lemons

Heat the oven to 180C/350F Gas 5. 

Whisk sugar and eggs together until fluffy and pale.  Add lemon zest and juice.  Stir in olive oil and milk.  Fold in the flour and baking powder.  Line the base of two 24cm/10in with parchment paper.  Carefully divide mix between the two tins and smooth over tops.   Bake for around 45 minutes or until tops are firm and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.  

Roll out fondant thinly on a worktop dusted with icing sugar, then cut out a circle to fit the top of the cake.   

For the decoration, place sugar and lemon zest in a pan and heat gently until sugar caramelises and coats zest.  Remove from pan and leave to cool and become crunchy.  

To assemble cake, spread one cake with lemon curd, generously.  Place other cake on top.  Finish with the circle of fondant icing, and perch the crunchy caramelised zest in the middle.