So a while ago, I made a gooey olive oil cake with lemon curd, but I wanted to do another rendition of that recipe. While this version is also 100% vegan, I wanted to try a couple of different things. The first is instead of piping the lemon curd into each cake before baking it, I froze the lemon curd into little half-spheres, and then baked them into the cakes. The second is that I made these cakes into more of a fully composed dessert, instead of just a bakery item. I paired the little vegan lemon curd-stuffed olive oil cakes with a vegan olive oil-lemon ice cream, and then I made an olive oil snow to go underneath it. The pairing of cake and ice cream is really nostalgic for me, so it felt like a fun idea to really go for it, and use that format for this kind of cake! The ice cream itself, what is really cool here is that the olive oil emulsifies with the cornstarch and milk, giving the vegan ice cream a creamier texture. With ice creams that lack egg yolks and heavy cream, you run the risk of them tasting icy as opposed to silky and soft, but the olive oil helps you in that regard, as it interferes directly with the formation of ice crystals, which are the enemy to smooth ice cream! The olive oil snow is simply made with olive oil and tapioca maltodextrin, which emulsifies with the fat to create this mildly olive oil-tinged white powder that just melts on the tongue.

With the curd, I relied on cornstarch and xanthan gum to thicken it, and then I froze the curd into little balls so that I could just press them into the cake batter prior to baking them. My curds did freeze, but they were still somewhat soft when frozen, which lended well to guaranteeing that the insides of my olive oil cakes would be a gooey around the edges of where the curd was, which is what I wanted. Now what I did not want was the ratio I achieved of cake to lemon curd, and I will be 100% honest about this. The ones in the photograph at the bottom were a half-flop in that I added far too much batter. My gut instinct was telling me to make 6 cakes with that amount of batter, but I made 4, resulting in a very uneven distribution of lemon curd to cake. I ended up with like 10% lemon curd to 90% cake, when I really wanted it to be more like 33% curd to 67% cake. Had I re-portioned the batter to my initial instinct, I would have accomplished that, but at least now you all reading this recipe will know that you can get my ideal version of this recipe by dividing the batter amongst 6 cupcake tins!

For the vegan olive oil-lemon ice cream:
zest and juice from 2 lemons
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup almond or soy milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot over medium-high heat, whisk the lemon juice and zest, sugar, cornstarch, olive oil, and salt until the mixture thickens into a semi-clear paste. Take the pot off heat and whisk in the milk to thin it all out. Then whisk in the vanilla. Churn the ice cream, following the instructions of an ice cream machine, and then freeze the ice cream for another hour before attempting to use.

For the lemon curd:
Juice and zest of 4 lemons
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, whisk everything besides the olive oil and vanilla extract together over medium-high heat until the liquid comes to a boil and thickens to the point of clinging to your whisk. Pass through a sieve and whisk in the olive oil and vanilla. Pour into silicone 2-inch half-sphere molds and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.

For the cake:
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup almond or soy milk
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
lemon curd*

In a cup, mix together the lemon juice, milk, olive oil, and vanilla. In a bowl, sift the other ingredients, sans lemon curd, together. Pour the lemon juice-milk mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Line 6 cupcake tins with cooking spray. Place down 2 tbsp of batter in each tin, then place in the lemon curd, pressing it into the center of each dollop of batter. Then add in 2 more tbsp of batter on top of the lemon curd. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes. While still warm, carefully invert the cakes onto a plate.

For the olive oil powder:
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp tapioca maltodextrin

Mix everything together in a bowl until a fine powder forms.