Celebrity Recipe Scored
Luxurious Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
Deeply moist, intensely chocolatey, and naturally gluten-free. Olive oil keeps it tender for days, and there is no mixer required.
Short Answer
This chocolate olive oil cake is rich, deeply moist, and naturally gluten-free, built on ground almonds instead of flour. Olive oil replaces butter, which keeps the crumb tender for days and gives it a subtle savory depth. It needs one bowl, no mixer, and about 45 minutes in the oven.
Why olive oil
Swapping butter for good olive oil does two things: it keeps the cake moist far longer than a butter cake, and it adds a gentle, grown-up savory note under all that chocolate. Ground almonds in place of flour make it naturally gluten-free and give it a dense, fudgy crumb. It is the kind of cake that is arguably better the day after you bake it.
If you bake a lot of celebration cakes, compare it with Joanna Gaines' lemon bundt, and our explainer on how nutrition scoring works is useful before you decide where a dessert fits.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups ground almonds (almond flour)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- A pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup superfine sugar
- 3 large eggs
Method
- Heat the oven to 325F. Oil a 9-inch springform pan and line the base with parchment.
- Whisk the cocoa powder with the boiling water until smooth, then whisk in the vanilla and set aside to cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds, baking soda, and salt.
- Beat the sugar, olive oil, and eggs together until pale and thickened, about three minutes.
- Pour in the cooled cocoa mixture and beat to combine, then fold in the almond mixture until just smooth.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is just firm.
- Cool in the pan for ten minutes, then release and cool fully before slicing.
More to bake
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Frequently asked questions
Only faintly, as a soft savory depth under the chocolate. Use a good extra-virgin olive oil you would happily eat, and the result is rounded rather than greasy.
Yes. It uses ground almonds instead of wheat flour, so it is naturally gluten-free, as long as your cocoa and other ingredients are certified.
The olive oil keeps it moist for three to four days, well wrapped at room temperature. Many people think it tastes even better on the second day.
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