A lemon cake that stays moist for a week — in Greece that is not a trick, but a consequence of the ingredient that replaces the butter. Olive oil makes the batter heavier, denser and moister than butter, and it does not dry out because the oil stays liquid at room temperature. That is exactly why kek me elaiolado is an everyday cake there and not a Sunday project.
This recipe is the simple version: a creamed batter, lemon zest in the cake, lemon syrup over the still-warm cake. No fondant, no layers, no fridge needed. Bake it once and you will bake it again — it takes less than an hour of work and keeps longer than any butter cake.
For a 24–26 cm springform tin, about 12 slices. 20 minutes of work, 45 minutes of baking.
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 3 | Eggs (room temperature) |
| 180 g | Sugar |
| 200 ml | Extra virgin olive oil, mild to fruity |
| 150 g | Greek yoghurt (10 % fat) |
| 2 | Organic lemons (zest and juice) |
| 250 g | Flour (type 405 or spelt flour 630) |
| 2 tsp | Baking powder |
| 1 pinch | Salt |
| 1 tbsp | Greek durum wheat semolina (optional, for a little bite) |
| For the syrup | |
| 80 ml | Lemon juice (about 2 lemons) |
| 60 g | Sugar |
| — | Icing sugar for dusting |
Heat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F) top and bottom heat. Line the base of the springform tin with baking parchment and brush the rim thinly with olive oil — not butter, otherwise the cake will still come out of the tin, but it will smell of the wrong fat.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for 4–5 minutes until pale and foamy, until the mixture has clearly gained volume. This is the one step where you really have to stay with it: it decides whether the cake turns out airy or dense.
Pour the olive oil in a thin stream while the mixer keeps running. If the oil goes in all at once, the emulsion can split and the batter turns greasy. Then stir in the yoghurt and the zest of both lemons.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and — if you have it — the semolina, and fold in in two batches with a dough scraper. Stir only until no flour is visible. Every extra movement makes the cake tough.
Fill the batter into the tin, smooth the top and bake for 45–50 minutes. The cake is done when a wooden skewer comes out dry from the centre. After 35 minutes, cover with foil if the top is browning too much — olive oil batter browns faster than butter batter.
Warm the lemon juice and sugar briefly until the sugar has dissolved, but do not boil. Let the cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then prick it about 20 times with a toothpick and spoon the syrup over the surface. It soaks into the warm crumb and stays there.
Only release the cake from the tin when it is completely cold — a warm olive oil cake breaks more easily than a warm butter cake. Dust with icing sugar before serving and, if you have them, top with a few paper-thin lemon slices.
Butter gives flavour, but it sets as it cools: after one or two days the cake turns dry and crumbly. Olive oil stays liquid and holds the moisture in the batter — which is why this cake is still moist on the third day, and some say better than on the first.
In flavour, the variety matters more than when you are frying. A very bitter, pungent oil from an early harvest pushes itself forward unpleasantly in a sweet batter. For cakes we recommend a mild to medium-fruity oil — our Koroneiki in the 500 ml bottle has enough fruit for the lemon note without covering the sugar. If you bake a lot, take the 1-litre bottle.
In a cake tin at room temperature for 5–6 days. Not in the fridge: the cold makes it firm and it loses its texture. Freezing works in slices, well wrapped, for 3 months — thaw at room temperature before serving, not in the microwave.
With a mild to medium-fruity oil, no — you taste a light fruitiness, but nothing you would identify as “olive oil”. With a very bitter oil from an early harvest, yes, and then it is distracting.
Technically yes, but then it is a different cake: it turns drier, keeps for less time and needs 20 g more, because butter is 15–20 % water.
Usually it was baked too briefly, or the tin was too small. At 24 cm diameter 45 minutes is realistic, at 20 cm more like 55. Always test with a skewer, not with the clock.
Mild to medium-fruity, cold-pressed, without pronounced bitterness. An oil you also like neat on bread works in the batter.
