Cora’s Lemon Olive Oil Cake with SIMPLi

A Healthy-ish Cake

I am notorious in my family for not baking. My mother is one of the best bakers of all time (I may be biased but ask anyone who has one of her tarts) so I never bothered too much with desserts since they were always taken care of. I much prefer the flexibility with booking to the precision needed for baking, and I almost never have sugar in the house. 

But I wanted to make an exception this year because there is one thing I love to eat that my mother doesn’t bake – olive oil cake. I started eating it in Italy, and have never found a version I didn’t love. 

When SIMPLi asked me to create a recipe for late summer, I knew I wanted to do something with their amazing Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I have a deep love for good olive oil, and SIMPLIi’s is packed full of the good stuff. 

The Spanish olive oil I used here is Regenerative Organic Certified, and is cold pressed at harvest to make sure the polyphenols are all kept intact and fresh. Polyphenols are beneficial as they act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, helping to combat oxidative stress and inflammation, which can lower the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. This olive oil also won a platinum medal at the London OOC 2026, recognizing it amongst the world most outstanding extra virgin olive oils, so it tastes as good as it acts for the body.

I had my friend Jordan here who is a mother of three and a very practiced baker to help support me, and I think we came up with a recipe that anyone can replicate. 

This is healthy-ish, delicious and if you opt for good ingredients I think a perfect guilt free dessert that can be adapted to any seasonal fruit or decor you want to put on top! 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups SIMPLI Extra Virgin Spanish Olive Oil

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 cup plant milk of choice (we used Elmhurst walnut milk)

2 lemons – zested and juiced

2 cups flour

3 organic eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Get out your favourite big bowl and pre-heat you over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix together sugar, olive oil and eggs with a whisk. Give this a really good whisk to make sure it’s blended and very smooth. 

Add vanilla, lemon zest and juice then mix well.

Add in the plant milk then mix well again. 

Mix all of the dry ingredients together. 

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mix and whisk incredibly well.

Use the SIMPLi olive oil to slick the 9 inch spring baking dish.

Pour in the batter.

Cook for 45 – 50 minutes, until golden on top and you can stick a long wooden stick in with no batter coming out on it.

Finish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and then any seasonal edible flowers or berries of choice. I used peach calendula from our garden!

Learn More About SIMPLi

We love SIMPLi because they make Regenerative Organic Certified™ pantry staples with roots, cultivated in centuries-old fields and grown to truly nourish.

When you take care of soil, food takes care of you. Rooted in generations of farming wisdom, SIMPLi pantry staples are grown without pesticides or herbicides, and tested for heavy metals. Creating food so nutritious, one bite counts as three.

Quality starts in the soil. That’s why SIMPLi’s heirloom beans, ancient grains, and single origin oils are naturally more nutrient dense. Every batch is independently tested through 200+ ISO-certified lab tests, so what you feed your family is as pure as the soil it came from.

To learn even more about why this type of food is so incredibly nourishing and healing, listen to our podcast episode with their co-founder Sarela here!

To make this incredible olive oil lemon cake, I used their Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil for it’s smooth and fruity flavor that is perfect to bake with.