Olive oil, almond & peach cake by Emily

As the first recipe in our series celebrating everything SWEET with our olive oil, we present you this stunning Olive oil, almond & peach cake by Emily Cuddeford of Twelve Triangles Edinburgh.

Emily writes:

"We've been working with Honest Toil olive oil since the start of 2023. When we first introduced it into our bakery it was for our bread and salads making focaccia and challah. We fell in love with the oil and its incredible flavour and we wanted to find more ways to introduce it into our sweet/bakery items. In March 2025, we published our debut cookbook which has an entire chapter dedicated to Honest Toil. This recipe is an adaptation from the cookbook for an olive oil and almond cake but giving it a summer twist by adding beautiful fresh peaches to it, which really complement the flavour from the olive oil and let it shine. This is a very simple cake which is done by hand and great for little helpers to get involved with, you don't need to vigorously whisk as you don't want to add air, all we are doing is just combining each ingredient. You can also change this cake seasonally, use any stone fruit and blood oranges also work beautifully when they are around."

What you'll need:

1x 20cm/8" dish or cake tin

3 ripe peaches

165g Honest Toil

200g + 70g caster sugar

1 lemon

3 eggs

110g greek full fat yoghurt

135g ground almonds

75g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Method:

Pre - heat your oven to 170c fan

Line your dish or tin with greaseproof paper

Cut your peaches into segments and cover the bottom of your dish

In a large bowl add your 200g caster sugar then zest your lemon and rub this together with your fingertips to boost the flavour and release the oils from the lemon.

Add the olive oil to the sugar and give it a brief whisk then add the eggs and whisk again, followed by the greek yoghurt and another gentle whisk.

Mix the dry ingredients together in another bowl then add this into the wet and stir together. 

Pour this over the peaches and bake for around 40mins until a cake skewer ( or piece of spaghetti ) comes out clear.

Whilst the cake is baking you can make the lemon syrup. In a small pan add the 70g of caster sugar and 70g of water, heat this gently to dissolve the sugar then bring to the boil, allow it to boil for a few mins then turn off. When it's cool add the juice of the lemon. ( if you want to boost the peach flavour you can add the peach stones into your syrup to infuse.

Take your cake out of the oven, and let cool a little, when it's comfortable to handle, tip it upside down on a plate or cake stand and peel off the greaseproof paper. You can then brush the syrup over the top of the peaches and then cake and allow it to sink in. 

If you eat this whilst warm you will get more flavour from the olive oil, it's also delicious with a dollop of creme fraiche or yoghurt on the side.