One Cake, Two Ways!

lately, i've been eating at bruegger's bagels a lot. you know... to study. namely because my uncle bequeathed me once again with the bottomless mug card. SCORE! anyway, aside from the free drinks, the object of my affection has become the rosemary olive oil bagel....

mmmmmMMMM. it is soooo damn tasty.

so it got me thinking i should put that into a cake. thus the itch to make a lemon and rosemary olive oil cake was born. this is a pretty classic combination that i hadn't tried till now, so i was pretty stoked. so stoked in fact that i made two versions.

okay i didn't make two just for kicks - i made two because the madre, as per usual, requested one for her coworkers. being that i am in between rotations this weekend (woohoo!), i was happy to oblige.

you know why else i was so happy? because i wasn't just going to make a regular ol' cake. i was going to make a bundt cake. yes, my shiny new aluminum bundt pan came in the mail not too long ago, and i have been dying to use it. i've always had this idea that cakes just taste better if they're in bundt form (for the record, i was right).

so, folks, here you are: lemon-glazed lemon and rosemary olive oil bundt cake. what a long (but glorious) name. one version is vegan, from scratch, and a little more time consuming - but ridiculously good. the other is going the sandra lee route, being semi-homemade but wholly-delicious. take your pick, and lemme know what you think!

vegan lemon and rosemary olive oil cake (makes 1 bundt cake)
( loosely adapted from chef chloe's lemon olive oil cake)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp lemon zest (about the zest of 1 large lemon)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about the juice of 1 large lemon)
2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary

1. preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a bundt pan by spraying the inside with a non-stick baking spray (these come with a bit of flour already in them). alternatively, you can grease and flour the pan. 
2. in a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
3. in a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, sugar, water, zest, juice, and rosemary. 
4. add the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, and stir. you should get a nice rise out of the baking powder and soda. 
5. pour into prepared bundt pan and bake immediately, on the middle rack of the oven, for 30 minutes. 
6. remove from oven and let cool completely (at least an hour) before turning it onto a serving dish. 
7. drizzle with lemon glaze (below) and serve. 

would ya look at how gorgeous that looks? you can even see the specs of rosemary in the cake. i promise it looks as good as it tastes. if not better. 

a quicker lemon and rosemary olive oil cake (makes 1 bundt cake)

1 package lemon cake mix

3 large eggs, room temp

1 1/4 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary

1. preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a bundt pan by spraying the inside with a non-stick baking spray (these come with a bit of flour already in them). alternatively, you can grease and flour the pan. 
2. in a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients. (holy crap - that was easy). 
3. pour into prepared bundt pan and bake immediately, on the middle rack of the oven, for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
4. remove from oven and let cool completely (at least an hour) before turning it onto a serving dish. 
5. drizzle with lemon glaze (below) and serve. 

ended up a little darker when using the cake mix. very pretty though. and it took me no time at all. this cake was sweeter and perhaps a little less tart than the vegan one, probably because of the ingredients in a boxed cake mix. however, they both even up on the sweet end when you dump the glaze on it. get. ready.

lemon glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice 

1. thoroughly mix together the above ingredients. you can thin the glaze out a bit with more lemon juice, or with milk or water, to get it to the desired consistency. 
2. drizzle over bundt cake and allow to set. if your glaze is on the runnier side, you may want to drizzle it just before serving. if you've got a beautiful thick glaze, just pour it on and let it set. 

this is what happens when you THINK your glaze is too thick and decide to thin it out some more... trust your instincts people, or you'll have a pool of glaze that will tempt you to lick the entire cake stand after you remove the cake...

not that i did that or anything.

and with this last pic, birthday shoutout to my bro, andrew poon, who is doing big things with his life :) 

ps...
it's been one year and two days since i put up the first recipe on this blog. since then, i've had allllmost 10K clicks on the site. love it! this started off as a project my second year of med school to balance out the insanity of how hard i was working to become a doctor. its my reminder to enjoy the sweet things in life - take note!