Vanilla Olive Oil Cake + Lemon Cream Cheese Icing
So Valentine's Day is just around the corner and although Paul and I don't celebrate our undying love for each other specifically on Valentine's Day, (I personally think you should do this all year long and I also think Valentine`s is just a commercial gig for stores, and I don't like to buy into all of that) I am alllll about the homemade love so instead of boxes of chocolate and hallmark cards I like to bake us up a special treat! This year though I decided to bake a little differently, instead of going decadently sinful (like my famous coffee moistened, dark chocolate raspberry cake, I will put this one up for Easter maybe ;) I wanted something a little healthier and free of refined sugars (which I gave up a few years ago). This cake is also going to be my last maple syrup or honey flavoured treat for a while so besides being somewhat healthy it had to be super tasty, as next week I am taking my sugar cut even further...
I had a bit of a health scare moment recently that has made me decide to make a pretty major change in diet and quit sugar! Yes you heard me right for 8 weeks I am going to follow Sarah Wilsons “I Quit Sugar” program, and from there we will see. I have a post coming out next week explaining my scare and my reasons for quitting sugar. Something that has actually been on my mind for a few months now, and I am just finally getting the push to follow through.
Maple syrup, honey and sometimes coconut sugar have been my only sweeteners (well and fruit) for a long time now. But as Sarah Wilson says "fructose is fructose, no matter the form it comes in". I am going to start this sugar free 8 week wellness journey next week (ya know, once the cake is finished) and as I said earlier I will explain more and my reasons in a post coming out next week, so stay tuned…
Until then I am going to dip my fork one last time into a delicious, not too sweet Valentine`s cake…
4 things I love about this cake:
// it is so quick and easy
// it is incredibly moist and the olive oil flavour is not heavy, it is actually really light
// when it comes to cake cakes it is relatively healthy
// it is just so pretty and looks gorgeous on the table (sure to impress)
I was inspired by this olive oil cake here with a few adaptions and an icing of my own. I have intentionally left this cake not very sweet so if you do like it a little sweeter add a 1/2 more cup of the maple syrup.
vanilla olive cake + lemon cream cheese icing
cake ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups of water
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp of pure vanilla
1 ½ tbsp of apple cider vinegar
lemon cream cheese icing
½ cup cream cheese
3 tbsp of maple syrup
2 tbsp of vanilla
juice and zest of one lemon
water to consistency
directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil two 9 inch cake pans with coconut oil and dust with flour.
Whisk all of the dry cake ingredients together and set aside.
Whisk together the wet ingredients, make a well in the dry ingredients and whisk in half of the wet ingredients and then whisk in the other half. Making sure it is combined thoroughly and no lumps.
Pour into baking pans and cook for 25-30 mins. Once done take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes before taking them out of the pans and cooling fully on a baking rack.
For the icing, combine all of the ingredients into a mixer and mix on high speed. You can add water to get the icing to the consistency you like, I would add it one tbsp at a time. You may also want to double the recipe for the icing; I only did a very thin layer between the cakes so if you would like more in between, double it up!
Garnish with chopped pistachios.
I would love to know in the comments below if any of you have ever done “I Quit Sugar” and any tips you would like to pass along would be greatly appreciated!