Recipe: Citrus Olive Oil Cake

Easy orange and lemon-scented olive oil cake

When I worked at Tender Greens, the pastry chefs would bake citrus olive oil cake daily for the restaurants. The lightly scented, deliciously moist squares of cake had the perfect slightly crunchy crust. The entire cake was dusted with a cloud of powdered sugar and orange zest. I could eat that cake every day for weeks and never get tired of it.

This is my cannabis-infused version of that citrus olive oil cake. I recommend pairing it with a strain high in limonene like Sour Lemon Diesel, Sundae Driver, or Mac 1.

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PRINTABLE RECIPE

Citrus Olive Oil Cake Recipe

Citrusy and soft olive oil cake made with infused olive oil. Use a good quality olive oil with a fruity scent. 

DOSING: Makes 1 cake, 8 servings at 5mg THC per slice. You’ll need 40mg THC total in this recipe. Pair with a strain high in limonene for a citrus-y boost, or linalool for a hint of lavender’s calming effects. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 eggs, room temperature

• 1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar

• 1 cup milk of choice

• 1 cup cannabis-infused olive oil (recipe follows)

• Zest from 1 orange and 1 lemon, plus more for garnish

• 1 1/2 cups (170g) flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cannabis olive oil:

• 1 cup olive oil 

•  0.3 grams cannabis flower (20% THC)

For Decoration:

• Powdered sugar

• Orange zest

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make cannabis-infused olive oil: Preheat the oven to 240°F. Place coarsely ground cannabis flower into a pint-sized 16 oz. mason jar, seal with the lid to reduce smell, and heat for 40 minutes in the oven to decarboxlyate, which activates the THC. Remove from the oven and let cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. The ground flower will look lightly toasted. 

Reduce the oven temperature to 170 degrees F. Pour olive oil into the mason jar, close the lid and shake or stir to combine. Place the sealed jar back into the oven to infuse for 3 hours. After 3 hours, remove from the oven and cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. Pour the olive oil through a fine mesh sieve into another small mason jar, straining out the ground flower and reserving the oil.  

2. Make the cake batter: Preheat the oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a round 9-inch cake pan with a light coat of olive oil, set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream the eggs and sugar together until incorporated and creamy. In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine milk, cannabis-infused olive oil, and citrus zest. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the milk/olive oil mixture into the egg/sugar mixture until incorporated, scrape the side of the bowl as needed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture until fully incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

3. Bake the cake: Pour the batter into the 9-inch round cake pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking for even baking.

Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove from pan onto a baking rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and citrus zest before serving. 

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This olive oil cake is absolute magic made even better with cannabis. You could also make this in muffin tins and small loaf pans. Let me know what you think of this cake!

XOXO, Christina W.