No butter lemon cake

A pox on butter prices! We’re baking anyway.

Have you seen the price of butter? Of course you have. You live here. It's depressing, especially if you love to bake.

But here’s some good news on that front: cakes made with oil (even the budget stuff) are just as tender, often lighter, and stay delectably soft for longer than a butter-based bake. This plush, lemony number is living proof  – it's bright-flavoured and has that lovely tender crumb that goes so well with a cup of tea or coffee. Fun fact: oil is 100% fat, while butter contains water and milk solids that can toughen a cake’s texture. So oil-based cakes tend to be extra-tender and will even keep better, because you can refrigerate them and they won't go hard. Talk about winning. So yeah. Take a hike, butter.

Makes 1 x 24cm cake

375g (1½ cups) plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3 large eggs

330g (1½ cups) caster sugar 

180ml (¾ cup) olive oil

2½ tbsp finely grated lemon zest

60ml (¼ cup) lemon juice

260g (1 cup) Greek-style yoghurt

Icing

125g (1 cup) icing sugar

60ml (¼ cup) lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160C. Lightly grease and flour a 24cm bundt tin.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.

Combine the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer then whisk for 4-5 minutes or until thick and pale. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking until it emulsifies, then mix in the zest, juice and yoghurt. Add the flour mixture, then using a large metal spoon, quickly stir to combine well. Pour into the prepared cake tin, then bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester withdraws clean. Cool the cake in the tin for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the icing, slowly add the lemon juice to the icing sugar in a small bowl, stirring constantly with a fork until a smooth, runny icing forms. Drizzle over the cooled cake, then leave to set.