Orange Olive Oil Cake
An Orange Olive Oil Cake, is a deliciously moist cake made with fresh orange zest and juice. Drizzled with a creamy orange glaze. This Italian Cake will become one of your favourites.
You can’t get any better than a country where cake can be eaten for breakfast and no on bats an eye! This Olive Oil cake is one of those. In fact this cake is not only perfect for breakfast but also snack or even dessert. It’s that good.
In Italy many people will have a slice of a Classic Ciambellone, or a typical Ricotta Cake or even a Chocolate chip breakfast cake along with a cappuccino or espresso. Sounds pretty good to me!
Recipe Ingredients
- Flour – cake or pastry flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Orange – orange zest
- Yogurt – greek yogurt room temperature
- Sugar – granulated sugar
- Olive oil – light olive oil
- Vanilla – vanilla extract
- Eggs – room temperature large eggs
Orange glaze
- Orange juice
- Powdered sugar – also known as icinge or confectioners’ sugar
I prefer light olive oil rather than extra virgin as I find extra virgin too strong a flavor in the finished cake.
How to Make Cake Flour
For every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of corn starch. Be sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together a couple of times, this way it is sure to be properly combined and lump free. Cake flour in cakes will give you a very tender texture and fine crumb, it will also help the cake to rise.
Why use room temperature ingredients?
With cakes and other baking, it’s always better to use room temperature ingredients. So, take any cold ingredients out of the refrigerator an hour ahead of time or sooner if it’s cool in your kitchen. Room temperature ingredients blend easier, creating a silky batter, which will help to create a light tender baked good.
How to make an Olive Oil Cake recipe
In a large bowl or stand mixer, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and zest, then add the yogurt, sugar, oil, egg and the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed until smooth and well combined.
Pour into the prepared round cake pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Test with a tooth pick for doneness, if dry or a few crumbs attached then the cake is done. Let the cake cool in the pan about 15 -20 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
Instead of the glaze you could dust it with powdered sugar. Or serve with a dollop of whipped cream.
To make the orange glaze
Mix together juice and powdered sugar, add more sugar depending on how thick you want the glaze.
Can you substitute with lemon?
Yes you could substitute the orange with lemon zest and lemon juice. Drizzle the cake with a lemon glaze instead. Or you could make it a citrus flavor and make half and half.
What makes a cake fall?
- There are a lot a reasons a cake may fall, but the most common ones are, your oven temperature is off, you can always check it with an oven thermometer to check this. You open the oven door too early.
- Once the batter is mixed it should be baked, letting a cake batter sit too long can cause it to fall. The baking powder or baking soda usually start acting immediately and will only last for a very short period of time, therefore if the cake batter is left to stand before baking then there is always a risk that the baking powder or soda will have expired by the time that the cake goes into the oven.
- Your baking powder or soda has expired and is no long active.
- The pan size might not be the correct size, sometimes using a bundt pan will help.
How to store a Homemade Cake
The cake should be stored in an airtight container or a covered cake dish. It will keep at room temperature for approximately 2-3 days if glazed. Longer and it should be refrigerated. It will last 4-5 days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.
How to freeze the Olive Oil Cake
The cake can also be frozen. Wrap the cooled cake tightly in plastic and place in a freezer safe bag or container. It will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
Nothing better than a fast and easy cake that tastes amazing. I wanted to give it an extra boost of orange so I thought a simple powdered sugar glaze made with fresh squeezed orange juice would be perfect. Enjoy!
Orange Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon cake/pastry flour (133 grams total)
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- zest 1 orange (room temperature)
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon plain whole greek yogurt (room temperature) (140 grams total)
- ½ cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar (131 grams total)
- ½ cup olive oil (light olive oil)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
Room Temperature – remove from the fridge 45-60 minutes before using.
ORANGE GLAZE
- juice from 1/2 orange (or 1-2 tablespoons, depending on how thick you want the glaze)
- 2/3 cup powdered / icing sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C. Grease and flour an 8 inch/20cm cake pan or bundt pan.
CAKE
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and zest, then add the yogurt, sugar, oil, egg and the dry ingredients, beat on medium speed until smooth and well combined.
- Pour into the prepared round cake pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Test with a tooth pick for doneness, if dry or a few crumbs attached then the cake is done. Let the cake cool in the pan about 15 -20 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing. Enjoy!
ORANGE GLAZE
- Mix together juice and the powdered sugar, add more sugar depending on how thick you want the glaze.
This recipe looks great and I actually have all the ingredients, which is a rarity during the quarantine! I’m planning on making it but I don’t have an electric hand mixer…. I’ve been holding out and saving up for a stand mixer, so I’m still mixing everything with a whisk or spoon.
It looks like there’s been some poor results for people mixing by hand, has anyone had good success with it or should I give it up and look for a different recipe?
Hi Anne, I think if you are going to try a recipe without electric beaters, this could be the one to try, since you don’t have to beat the egg and sugar, you just have to beat until smooth, so using a whisk and beating strongly should work. Make sure your ingredients are room temperature. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much for your help, Rosemary! I’ll give it a try.
I made this cake, with a few minor changes, and it is amazing! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe.
In case anyone else faces similar dilemmas, I made the following changes and it turned out great:
-Mixed by hand (no electric mixer). I whisked all the wet and dry separately and thoroughly first and then slowly added the dry to the wet, whisking it in well. Mixed a bit longer till very smooth.
-No cake flour on hand, so subbed all-purpose with 2 tbsps flour removed and 2 tbsps cornstarch added
-Didn’t have powdered sugar and didn’t want to try making it, so instead I made a citrus syrup with orange and lemon juice, and sugar, and brushed it on the cake after being removed from the pan but while still warm. It adds an amazing punch of citrus and a nice gloss.
-Baked in a loaf pan (floured and oiled) instead of a cake pan. It took about 10 minutes longer to bake, just kept checking it every few minutes.
Just made your cake for the first time today. I used an 8in round pan and I was amazing at how beautifully it turned out. Waiting for it to cool so I can ice it. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Anna Marie, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed it. Take care.
I made this cake in an 8″ round pan and it rose perfectly. I don’t have beaters so I just mixed it with a fork and it turned out great. Will make again.
Hi Carol, thanks so much, my mother-in-law always beat her cakes with a fork also. Take care.
Sorry I don’t see the videos anywhere.
Hi Armando, it’s near the top of the post. I wrote “be sure to watch the video” and it’s underneath that.
I made a few changes to your recipe with success. I read the reviews and noted some of them had issues with rise. So, I separated the eggs and beat the egg whites with the 2 tablespoons of sugar. I mixed everything else up, folded in the egg whites. Worked very well. The next time I made it I used blood orange infused olive oil and it was great too.
Hi Elizabeth, thanks so much so glad you liked it, and thank you for letting me know. 🙂
Hi, have been looking for this kind of recipe for orange cake for last two years and finally found it !! The cake cake out excellent on first attempt. It tastes good even without the glazing. And I made my own Greek yoghurt by simply using 1 cup of homemade yoghurt and letting it strain in refrigerator for 6 hours. This is the first time I used yoghurt and olive oil in a cake recipe and I am very happy with the results. Thankyou !
Hi Megha, thanks, so glad you found it! Great idea for making greek yogurt! 🙂
Dear Rosemary,
I usually bake in metrics and when I converted your recipe to metrics, it says 1.38kg flour. Is that right? Also, a pinch of salt is getting converted to Nan on your recipe. Hope you can check it. Also, please do let me know the right metric measurements for your recipe. Would love to try it out!
Hi Supriya, sorry about that, we use a program and it was way off this time. I adjusted it to read correctly. Let me know how it goes. Thanks
Hey! Thank you for the corrections. Is it 138 gms flour? you might want to correct it still as now it reads 1.38g only!
Hi Supriya, thanks again lol I corrected it again. Have a great day.
My cake didn’t rise much either. I used a bundt pan and noticed that there didn’t seem like much batter for the pan. Also it seemed like there was too much juice from half of an orange for 2/3 cup of confectioners sugar. I added more sugar and didn’t taste the orange. My glaze started to run off so I hope refrigerating the glaze will make a difference. Hopefully the cake will taste good, as I am taking it to a friend’s house for Easter dinner. It looks like a large, unglazed donut right now,
Hi Ileene, sorry it didn’t rise, what I am thinking is that it could be your oven. Have you checked to make sure it is heating properly? Or was your bundt pan bigger than 8 inches? I make this cake quite often (I also made a video for it) and it always rises for me. And if you prefer your glaze thicker you could add a little orange zest or orange flavouring if you want. Let me know.
Hello Rosemary,
Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the video clip until after I had made the cake. I figured I would just follow the instructions in the recipe. The part I failed to do was use the hand mixer because, when following the directions, I beat the mixture…….by hand. I took the cake to the Easter dinner party and everyone who ate my cake said it tasted good. My friend is an avid baker and she said if I had used the mixer, it probably would have risen. Maybe the other people who said theirs did not rise also just followed the recipe and didn’t watch the video. Most recipes I have followed always say to mix on high for however many minutes, then mix on low, etc. I did not used a mixer because the directions were beat until smooth. Maybe I do not bake enough to think that using the mixer is implied. Also, I believe my bundt pan may be 9” which probably didn’t help. As for the glaze, putting it in the refrigerator didn’t help, so I added a lot more confectioners sugar to get the proper consistency. The glaze then adhered when applied. Maybe that half orange was exceptionally juicy! I will make this cake again another time in the future, use the hand mixer, and comment again.
Hi Ileene, thanks so much for your feedback, it has helped a lot. I have updated the instructions. Let me know if you try it again and how it goes. Have a great weekend.
Hi Rosemary. Thanks for your reply. Maybe that was foolish on my part not to watch the video first. Instead, I just proceeded on with the recipe. I have made boxed cakes that always called for a hand mixer so I just figured this one was different and didn’t need one. Anyway, I will try it again sometime and be sure to let you know!
Hi Ileene, don’t worry about it, you helped me improve my instructions. Let me know if you try it again. Have a great weekend.
OMG! I am obsessed with this cake, this sounds so amazing, plus I am addicted to olive oil, so this is my type of recipe
Hi Albert, thanks so much it is pretty good. Happy New Year.
I just tried this cake today. I used regular olive oil and vanilla greek yogurt (2%). What I really like about your recipes as that they are not too sweet and are easy to make. However, although this one was very good, it did not rise much. I have made your easy yogurt cake and the simple cinnamon cake and both have risen very well. (nice and high) I used an 8 inch round cake pan for all of the cakes.. My husband also enjoyed it as well.
Thanks for another good recipe.
Hi Stephanie, thanks so much and that is strange it didn’t rise much, was your baking powder expired maybe? Let me know. Happy New Year.
Hi, thank you so much, my husband loves this cake.
Hi Fatima, so glad he enjoys it. Happy New Year.
Oh yum yum yum! This sounds scrumptious! I like that you use Greek yogurt in it! Thanks for sharing with Thursday Favorite things! Angelina at Petite Haus
Thanks Angelina, it was really good.
I love your recipes. They look fantastic. I want to try all of them. I’m not very good at baking, so I attempted to try this cake first. Looked quite easy but something went wrong. It didn’t rise much and I’m guessing that I used the wrong olive oil. The cake tasted strange. What olive oil would you recommend? Cooking or virgin? I used Bertolli Extra Virgin original olive oil.
Hi Edita, thanks so much. The olive oil you used should be fine, did you bake it in an 8 inch pan? Is your oven temperature accurate? I have made this a few times now, even in a loaf pan and it turned out fine. Hope this helps let me know. I would love for it to work for you. Another easy one is the Easy Yogurt Cake.
I baked in 9 inch bundt pan. The oven is a bit hotter than it says, so I reduced the heat about 15-20 degrees. Not sure but I think it is the oven. It is a cheap one. I baked another simple cake before this one and it was the same thing, flat and hard. And just recently did another simple cake. It was the same problem. Did not rise at all. I felt like crying because I love eating cakes too much. And it seems they don’t work for me. Thanks for the reply.
Hi Edita, so sorry to hear that, I had the same problem last year with my oven.
I absolutely love cakes with a citrus accent. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Maria, thanks so much. Have a great weekend.
Um……where is the video?
Hi Karen, sorry about that, I have the worst internet on the planet and yesterday it was down almost all day and it didn’t get uploaded, but it is now. Have a great week.