If you’re like us, you rely on olive oil to lend extra flavor to marinades, vegetables and even our favorite breads. But it turns out that you don’t have to limit olive oil to just savory dishes. With the right recipe, a good extra virgin olive oil gives cakes great texture and moisture.
It might sound a bit strange, but combined with citrus and almonds, olive oil makes for a rather plush cake. The result isn’t overly sweet, which means a good olive oil cake can just as easily sub in for an afternoon treat or breakfast (who doesn’t like cake for breakfast?) as it can serve as dessert. We can’t recommend trying this cake enough: It only takes about 10 minutes to pull together. So grab your favorite bottle of extra virgin olive oil and break out your mixer.
Can you use olive oil in a cake recipe?
Yes. Considering all its savory applications, it can be hard to think of olive oil as having a place in baking. However, olive oil can be used in place of traditional cooking oils—just swap out the same amount of vegetable or canola oil for extra virgin olive oil.
You can also swap out butter and use extra virgin olive oil if you prefer. The rule of thumb here is to use 75% the amount of butter called for, so if your recipe calls for eight ounces of butter, use just six ounces of oil.
Before you trade in olive oil for butter, there are a few things to consider. First off, you need to understand the flavor profile of the cake. Chances are, olive oil won’t play well in something like a confetti cake—though it does do well in this cornmeal cake. Also, keep in mind that butter and oil don’t behave the same way in the batter. Butter can be aerated with sugar to create air bubbles that will give the cake lift. Olive oil will not do that. Instead, the lift comes from the baking soda or powder in the recipe.
Olive Oil Cake Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Ground almonds
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Orange zest
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
Icing:
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Orange juice
- Sliced almonds to garnish
Directions
Step 1: Start the batter
To start this cake, whisk together the olive oil, eggs and sugar with either your trusty hand mixer or stand mixer. Don’t attempt to do this by hand. You’ll want the extra power to get these ingredients nice and fluffy. Whisk on medium-high speed for about five minutes. The mixture should be a lemony color.
Step 2: Add flavorings
Then add the milk, vanilla extract, orange zest and ground almonds and whisk until just combined.
Editor’s Tip: We used ground almonds here since they’re readily available at the grocery store, but feel free to substitute your favorite nut. Pistachios and walnuts would work great. Similarly, you can swap out the orange zest for blood orange, lemon or even grapefruit. The nuts and citrus fruits in this recipe give you some room to customize it to suit your taste.
Step 3: Fold in dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to your wet mixture and fold together until just combined.
The batter takes less than 10 minutes to make, so it’s a great recipe for when you only have a few moments of prep time.
Step 4: Bake
Prep your favorite bundt pan by giving it a liberal coating of cooking spray—if you have an olive oil-based one, all the better. Once your pan is coated, pour in your cake batter and bake at 350ºF for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
When the cake is done, place it on a wire rack to cool. After 15 minutes, invert the pan and turn the cake out. Allow this to cool completely before icing.
Editor’s Tip: Be sure to bake on the middle rack; it’s the best place for cakes, cookies and other common bakes.
Step 5: Ice the cake
All you need to finish this cake is a very simple icing. Just whisk together confectioners’ sugar and orange juice until it’s the perfect drizzling consistency. From there, just drizzle over the top of the cake with a spoon.
To give it that last finishing touch, top with sliced almonds. We like to toast them first for a bit of extra flavor. Add them into a small pan and do it over the stove, or here are some other easy ways to do it, too.
Olive Oil Cake Tips
How does olive oil cake taste?
Slicing into this cake, it’s exceptionally tender. The olive oil gives it just the right amount of moisture and lends just a bit of its rich flavor, making this bundt cake a dessert that’s not overly sweet.
Can you taste the olive oil in baked goods?
Extra virgin olive oil serves only as a very mild base flavor for cake. Its savory leanings are definitely mellowed out by the sugar, vanilla, orange and almonds. What olive oil really brings to this cake is moisture and texture.
For this cake, the orange zest and the almonds are really the main flavors. With the glaze on top, you really get that bright citrus kick and those almonds give it a beautiful texture.
