The perfect Christmas gift for the person who has everything & the best Lemon Olive Oil Cake ever!

You can thank me now or just send me prosecco at your earliest convenience because I have solved the problem of what to buy for the person who has everything and I’m giving you a delicious recipe to go with it. 

I know that there is that person in all our lives who quite genuinely has everything and is a pain in the ass to buy gifts for – I know there is. For us, it’s our parents. They buy themselves everything they can possibly need, even the things they decide they want in December.

But I have the solution – An Olive Tree. Now don’t worry if your recipient isn’t the green fingered type, this isn’t an olive tree they have to care for, this is an olive tree from a company called Nudo. Nudo lets you adopt a tree in a grove in Italy, a tree that someone else looks after for you, and most importantly presses the olives it produces into olive oil for you and delivers straight it to your door throughout the year.

We discovered Nudo through a friend last year and immediately I knew that an olive tree would be the perfect gift for my dad and Jim’s mum. And it was. Nudo sent through an adoption certificate to us and we also bought a can of oil and a gift tin to wrap up and put under the tree too. And as a gift it went down amazingly. My dad raves about the oil – saving his deliveries for ‘good’ meals and Jim’s mum took a trip to Italy to visit her tree.

So when I was given the chance to try some of the Nudo oils myself I couldn’t say no. I mean I’ve tasted them at dinner, but I’ve not had the chance to have any at home to use. The set I received, the Three Tenors Gift Box, included chili oil, extra virgin olive oil and lemon olive oil. Jim is obsessed with the chili oil. He pours it on pasta, swirls it in soup and I think he’d bath in it if he could. Me, I use the extra virgin oil for dipping with some herbs and a bowl of balsamic. But the lemon oil I wanted to use for something special. Something different. Lemon Olive Oil Cake.

This was my first time baking with olive oil and it was a great experience. The cake was light and fluffy and really moist. My only thought was my lemon zest – maybe it wasn’t grated enough as there were still quite big bits in some of the cake.

What you’ll need:

  • 1/2 cup lemon olive oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 225g sugar
  • 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice 
  • 140g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 40g icing sugar to decorate

What you need to do:

  • Preheat your oven to 170c and grease cake or cupcake tin. 
  • Beat the eggs and sugar on high in a mixer until they are fluffy and have at least doubled in size. 
  • In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and lemon zest. 
  • Fold the lemon olive oil and the lemon juice into the egg and sugar mixture with a rubber spatula. Then fold in the flour mixture until the flour disapears. Be carefult to not mix it too much to make sure the eggs stay fluffy. 
  • Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and make sure you tap it a few times to get rid of any bubbles. 
  • Bake for 15-18 mins for small cakes or 40-45 minutes for a cake pan. 
  • Let the cake rest for 10 minutes before turning out of the pan – you might have to run a knife around it to loosen it. 
  • Dust with a little icing sugar before serving. 
  • Enjoy.  

So now I have told you the secret behind my gift for the people that have everything, tell me yours. I still have parents to buy for and they’ve renewed their tree subscription themselves! Damn it.

*I was sent the olive oil to sample but all the words and views are my own. We bought the tree subscriptions before Nudo got in touch so they had nothing to do with that!*

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