The Pioneer Woman Tasty Kitchen
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Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme

4.57 Mitt(s) 7 Rating(s)7 votes, average: 4.57 out of 57 votes, average: 4.57 out of 57 votes, average: 4.57 out of 57 votes, average: 4.57 out of 57 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5

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Level: Easy

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Description

These sweet and lemony muffins have a wonderful hint of fresh thyme … perfect for breakfast with a cup of joe. Perfect after lunch, too. And dinner. Man, these are good.

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon Melted Butter
  • 1-⅓ cup Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Grated Lemon Zest
  • 2 whole Eggs
  • ¼ cups Olive Oil
  • ⅔ cups Whole Milk
  • 1 cup Flour
  • ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ½ teaspoons Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Minced Fresh Thyme
  • _____
  • FOR THE GLAZE:
  • 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
  • 3 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice, Or More As Needed

Preparation

Here’s what you do:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan with melted butter and then dust with a little bit of flour. Pulse the sugar and lemon zest in a blender until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, then gradually pour in the olive oil and milk, pulsing until emulsified into a thin batter, about 30 seconds. Don’t overblend or the cakes will be too puffy.

Whisk one cup flour, the baking powder, salt and thyme in a small bowl. Add to the blender in 2 batches until just combined. Pour the batter unto the prepared pan and bake until the cakes just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and spring back when lightly touched, about 25 minutes depending on your oven.

In the meantime, make the glaze: whisk the powdered sugar, melted butter and lemon juice until smooth, adding more lemon juice if too thick. Drizzle over the cooled cakes and garnish with a thyme sprig.

18 Comments

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Kathy Hampton on 5.14.2013

OMG! I love these cupcakes/muffins. I usually make my glaze a bit thinner and drizzle it on the muffins fresh out of the oven BEFORE I take them out of the muffin pan. Let the glaze soak in . . . WOW! SO GOOD!

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wainblatrobert on 2.14.2011

great recipe and who would’ve thought of adding thyme to a desert?! The only change I made was add a few drops of lemon essential oils in the batter to bring out the flavor more.

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jul3 on 5.15.2010

I’m eating one right now… It was the first time I put olive oil in a cake, so I was curious to try it out. They turned out very tasty!

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meggygirl on 4.4.2010

Oh my. These are SO good! I made them this morning for a little springtime breakfast treat and devoured two before I knew what had happened. I love unique flavors in baked goods and these little gems fit the bill: sweet, savory and tangy all at once. I’ll definitely be making these again.

P.S. We had ours with fresh-brewed coffee, but I bet a good cup of Earl Grey with a splash of milk or half and half would be out of this world.

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snowflake4x4 on 3.10.2010

I made these a couple weeks ago after seeing them on Pioneer Woman… I then proceeded to make them 2 more times that week because they would get eaten up so fast. These are amazing and easy. My new favorite dessert to make. Plus I pretend they are healthy since they use olive oil instead of butter.

7 Reviews

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Kathy Hampton on 5.14.2013

Love these! I make the glaze a bit thinner and drizzle it on right out of the oven while still in the muffin pan. Let it soak into the muffins before removing. OMG! SO GOOD!

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littleladylones on 6.13.2011

Make. These. Now. I promise they won’t dissapoint! I didn’t use as much glaze, and they could stand alone without it.

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jevans on 1.17.2011

Yum Yum Yum! I used onceuponafarm’s idea with the lavendar. Yum! I also sprinkled some cilantro on a couple–jury is still out on those. I think I like it. And as usual for me, I over-blended and ended up with domes. Oh well. They are just for me & hubs so domes are ok. Instead of the glaze, I spooned the fresh lemon juice on top. I like the tangy-ness :) Thank you for the recipe!! I’ll definetly make them again and try to not over-blend :)

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jerobinso on 8.2.2010

I just made these, and they are very nice- sweet and a bit savory. I didn’t have thyme, but I used rosemary instead.
A word of warning though: I made these in a blender with a spout on the side (to dispense contents), and all the sugar got stuck in the spout at the beginning and didn’t mix back in with the other ingredients. I didn’t find out until I cleaned up and the cakes were in the oven! The glaze made up for it, so all is well.

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onceuponafarm on 7.23.2010

When I decided to make this recipe I didn’t have Thyme, so I used the mint from my garden instead. I couldn’t taste the mint but the taste of the lemon alone was delicious. I made this recipe 2 more times (without Thyme again) first substituting the lemon for lime, and then substituting the lemon for orange. Orange muffins and lime muffins– YUM!

The structure of the muffin is firm and not crumbly at all. You could probably substitute different citrus and herbs for some fun combinations.

(I’m thinking about making lavender-lemon muffins next time!)

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