Greek Olive Oil Cake is a recipe I picked up at our local olive oil store, and I'm happy to say it lived up to our expectations. It is super moist, very flavorful and a a fun way to use Greek olive oil.
That being said, I used Sicilian olive oil! It's what we had, and it worked as well as Greek, though I'll certainly try that version as well. Really, you can use any olive oil for this one.
Cake Flavor and Texture
The flavor is lemony so it blends with even the most robust olive oils and makes its own new flavor. If you want less olive oil flavor, just use a milder one. Also, the main juice in this cake is freshly squeezed orange juice. For a tarter cake you can use a combination of lemon and orange juice. I do not usually care for lemon extract, but mixed with all the other ingredients in this cake it has a pretty nice flavor. As for texture, it's extremely soft and moist. Be careful taking it out of the pan because it is delicate. The glaze ramps up the moisture even more. If you don't like very sweet cakes you could just leave off the glaze completely and the cake is still plenty moist.
Loaf Pan Size
The original recipe is designed for one large loaf plus a few muffins, but I tested it as two 8x4 inch loaves and feel like the smaller loaves are perfect since it's such a rich and moist cake. Also, for my loaves I used the cold oven method in an attempt to get slightly more domed tops. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. The Greek Olive Oil Cakes had nice little domes, so I think it did.
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
If you like the idea of an olive oil cake but would rather get your chocolate fix, you could try the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake. It's good too.
Recipe
Greek Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoons lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 330 grams
- 2 ½ cups sugar 500 grams
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest Feel free to use more or less or leave out
- 1 cup olive oil Greek or Sicilian
Orange Juice Glaze
- ¾ cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 1 ¼ cup confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Bring all your ingredients to room temperature.
- Grease a large loaf pan or two 8x4 inch loaf pans. Line with strips of parchment and grease again. This is a sticky cake! It's worth using the parchment.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, orange juice, yogurt, and both extracts.
- In a second bowl, weigh out your flour and stir together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until almost fully mixed.
- Pour the cup of olive oil over and continue to mix until batter is smooth and glossy.
- Pour the batter into the large loaf pan (It should be a little over ¾ full) or the two 8x4 inch loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes or until cakes appear set andinternal temperature registers over 195.
- You can use a preheated oven or try the cold oven method. If starting in a cold oven, set the timer for 50 minutes. If you are making two small 8x4 inch loaves they’ll probably be done in 50 minutes starting cold. If making the larger size loaf, check at 50 minutes but plan on baking for about an hour. If you start in a preheated oven, a large cake should take 50 minutes and the smaller cakes should be checked around 40 minutes but will probably take more like 45.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans (or pan) for about 30 minutes, then carefully loosen and let cool completely. Make the glaze by simply whisking together the juice and sugar. Pour it over the cooled cakes.
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