This Orange Olive Oil Cake is scented with warming cardamom and cinnamon and SUPER moist! It’s baked with Greek yogurt and honey, and it’s dense – almost like a pound cake. AND it contains no refined sugar!
Once you’ve tried baking with olive oil, you may never go back. The Greeks and Italians have been doing it for a while, and the trend is catching on here as well, especially as the Mediterranean Diet gains popularity.
This cake is so much more guilt-free than many others. Yes, olive oil is still a fat, and yes, honey is still sugar, but it’s a lot healthier than other cakes made with vegetable oils and sugar.
Don’t worry- it doesn’t TASTE healthy. It tastes AMAZING. It’s moist and rich and the flavor combination of fresh orange with warm cardamom and cinnamon is out of this world (and these flavors go well with the earthy, nutty flavor of extra-virgin olive oil).
And it makes your house smell SO GOOD while it cooks!
Olive oil cake is often made with lemon. I wanted a more festive cake for the holiday season, so I used orange instead.
If you want, you can use this base recipe with whatever citrus you want- lemon, lime, even grapefruit!
And if you aren’t feeling the warm spices vibe, or aren’t a fan of cardamom, feel free to leave it out for a more simple version of this olive oil cake.
The best part about this orange olive oil cake is the frosting. That’s because there IS NO FROSTING.
A simple dusting of powdered sugar, with a little bit of extra orange zest, was all I added to top this cake off. You really don’t need anything else- the cake’s flavors are complex enough.
Although, if I were making this in a bundt pan, I may whip up an orange and honey glaze to pour on top. Maybe next time.
I did, however, serve the sliced cake with an extra drizzle of honey on top. Yum, yum. Delicious AND pretty.
Cardamom has a very potent flavor, so you have to be careful to not add too much, otherwise it may taste a bit soapy. I used 1/2 teaspoon, but if you only like a teeny bit of cardamom flavor, you can try just 1/4 teaspoon.
Cardamom always reminds me of the holidays, since my family has made Norwegian Waffles on Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. They’re flavored with cardamom, and they’re super dense and moist, unlike other waffles you may be used to.
Actually, they’re a LOT like this cake!
I might need to start a new tradition and make this orange olive oil cake for breakfast on Christmas morning instead. It sure is easier than dragging out a waffle maker (and it’s Christmas, so cake for breakfast is acceptable, right?).
If you like this Cardamom Spiced Orange Olive Oil Cake recipe, you’ll love these other desserts made with oil: Spicy Gingerbread Cake with Orange Mascarpone Cream, and Chai Spiced Pumpkin Bread.
Other baked goods with olive oil:
Be sure to check out all my Holiday Baking Recipes, including this yummy Dutch Butter Cake!
Cardamom Spiced Orange Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups extra-virgin olive oil plus more for coating the pan
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest from about 1 naval orange
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice from about 1 naval orange
- 3/4 cup honey
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- confectioners’ sugar for dusting
- extra honey and orange zest for serving optional
Instructions
- Line a 9" circular cake pan with parchment paper (I use a pencil to trace an outline of the bottom of the pan on the paper, then cut slightly inside the line) and grease generously with olive oil, under and over the parchment paper and up the sides of the pan. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F and place an oven rack in the top third of the oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil (3/4 cup), orange zest (1 teaspoon), orange juice (1/4 cup), honey (3/4 cup), three eggs, Greek yogurt (1 cup), ground cardamom (1/2 teaspoon), ground cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon), kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon), baking powder (1/2 teaspoon), and baking soda (1/2 teaspoon).
- Add the flour (1 1/2 cups) and whisk until well-combined.
- Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake at 325 degrees F in the top third of the oven for 45-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of the cake comes out clean (see notes).
- Allow to cool in pan on cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. Run knife along the edge to loosen and flip onto a cutting board to remove, then flip back over onto the serving dish.
- Dust with confectioners’ sugar through a sifter or by placing it in a mesh sieve and tapping it.
- Slice into 8 pieces. Serve warm or at room temperature, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with extra orange zest, if desired.
Notes
- This cake is dense and very moist. Some readers have noted that theirs did not cook all the way in the middle. This recipe may have varied results if you are at a higher elevation, if you use a different size cake pan, if your yogurt is particularly watery or lower in fat, your oven temp, or even depending on brand of flour. If yours seems like it’s not cooking in the middle after 70 minutes or so, I recommend tenting with foil, so the top of the cake doesn’t burn, and turning the temperature of your oven up to 350 degrees F until it’s cooked.
- This cake can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for about three days. For best results, dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving. Otherwise, it will disintegrate into the moisture of the cake.
- Leftovers can be frozen and stored in an airtight bag or wrapped tightly in plastic for up to 3 months.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
DB
Hi, I’ve made this recipe multiple times now and it’s always a hit! Recently, I swapped out oranges with strawberries/lemons and have even added a little Turkish coffee when I’ve been out of cardamom, and it turns out great every time. Sometimes the cake deflates in middle after cooling, but I imagine that’s b/c of the juice? I usually double up on juice and zest. This week, I’m thinking about swapping oranges for pineapple and coconut–have you ever tried this? Think it will work? Any suggestions for modifications? I feel like this recipe is a great base. Thanks again for sharing!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it, and I love your modifications especially the coffee! I’ve never tried pineapple and coconut but I bet that would be delicious. You could almost treat it as a pineapple upside down cake and put some thin slices of pineapple on the bottom I bet… and sprinkle the top with flaked coconut before serving instead of powdered sugar…yum! Good luck and have fun experimenting!
Natalie Norman
Incredible! Tastes just like a dessert you can get at Blue Scorcher in Astoria, OR. I did mine in a muffin tin to get smaller cakes and they only took about 30 mins to bake through all the way. I also did a paper-thin slice of orange in the bottom of the tin and served them upside down, the orange looks gorgeous with powdered sugar dusted on top. I didn’t find it too oily, but i think if i hadn’t had the extra orange slice topping the cake it wouldn’t have enough orange flavor come through. Maybe go heavy on the orange juice. Definitely will be making again!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! I LOVE the idea of making the mini cakes, with an orange at the bottom. What a great way to boost the orange flavor! Totally trying that next time I make this.
Suzy khasho
It looks very devious and I’m going to to bake this cake very soon even it’s not Christmas.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hope you like it! I think it’s great year-round!
Hannah
This is expensive to make for something that is hit or miss.for me it was a bust.I might use it again cutting the oil because the amount that’s in here is crazy.wayyyy too oily!this recipe needs a lot of tweaking!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks for this feedback, I’ll be tinkering with this recipe around the holidays again for sure!
Sherre
I love this cake. I’ve only made it twice, because I don’t bake much, but it turned out great both times. The 2nd time, I accidentally bought 0% fat Greek yogurt, but it still worked :)
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Good to know it works with 0% Greek Yogurt- thanks for the tip!
Ben
Didn’t follow the Directions. I had dry in one bowl and wet in another bowl. Mixed the wet until it was homogenous then sifted in the dry. Line my muffin pans with castor sugar and they came out perfect. Serving them as little tea cakes with whipped salty butter and dehydrated orange.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Wow, that sounds delicious served as individual tea cakes! Thanks for the tips :-)
Katie
I almost didn’t bake this due to the negative comments…it came out perfect first try and it’s AMAZING! I cooked this in a well seasoned, standard size, round cast iron. I used coconut oil to grease the pan & didn’t have/use/need parchment paper. Top shelf, 45 minutes @ 350* – it’s beautiful, golden and delicious! I will absolutely make this again.
Elizabeth Lindemann
SO glad to hear you liked it and that it worked well for you!! I’m stumped as to why it works really well for me and for other people, but not for some people, so it’s great to hear that you had success with it. Love the idea of using cast iron.
Jamei
I have now made this cake two times and it was a failure. Both times it baked for over 50 minutes but after it came out of the oven it completely deflated and was so moist and full of oil that is was disgusting. I followed the recipe exactly. Any idea what went wrong?
Elizabeth Lindemann
I’m so sorry you had a frustrating experience with this! You’re not the only person who this has happened to, but for most people the recipe has worked well. It’s a very wet batter, and I’m going to make it a priority to play around with this recipe a little to see if I can adjust it so it works better for more people. I did write a recipe note about this specific issue- I’ll copy and paste it here too. As for the oil, it is definitely a main feature of this cake, and you can tell it’s there. That said, it shouldn’t be overly greasy. If you want to give it another go, I’m thinking that when I try to make it again I’m going to try 1/2 cup oil and 1 3/4 cups flour. Hopefully that will help firm it up a bit for more people without drying out the cake or affecting the taste. Hope that helps, and better luck next time!
Here’s the recipe note from above: This cake is dense and very moist. Some readers have noted that theirs did not cook all the way in the middle. This recipe may have varied results if you are at a higher elevation, if you use a different size cake pan, if your yogurt is particularly watery or lower in fat, your oven temp, or even depending on brand of flour. If yours seems like it’s not cooking in the middle after 70 minutes or so, I recommend tenting with foil, so the top of the cake doesn’t burn, and turning the temperature of your oven up to 350 degrees F until it’s cooked.
Genevieve
This cake is amazing! I had an 8” circular cake pan so like the previous comment mentioned I wasn’t able to put all the batter in the pan therefore I had enough batter left to make 2 extra muffin size mini cake. I also replaced the all-purpose flour by 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour, 1/2 cup of semolina flour and 1/2 cup of oat flour as I saw someone post that modification on FB. I cooked it at 350 for 50 min. and also added 1 tsp of orange extract and it came out perfect. This is definitely a keeper! Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it and thank you for explaining what you did to accommodate for an 8″ pan! Love all your flour substitutions as well- thanks so much!
Emma
Yay! What an easy and lovely cake! Delicate flavor, super moist without being stodgy or dense, nice rise. I baked mine top shelf for exactly 45 minutes closer to 350 degrees (imprecise oven).
If you’re struggling, double check your pan size! I was sure I had a 9″ but I measured and it’s an 8″ — if you put all that batter into an 8″ it won’t cook properly! That one inch difference is like 25% extra batter. So I put around 3 cups worth of batter in my 8″ pan and that worked out perfectly. You’ll have some batter leftover (which I stuck into a cupcake tin — waste not). This is why she specifically says NINE inch round.
Also make sure your yogurt is GREEK and FULL FAT. I nearly picked up a 0% greek yogurt because the label was so tiny — water content in fat free products is VERY high, that’s why she specifically says Full Fat.
I added 1 tsp orange extract like she mentioned in the comments because I really wanted a punch of orange flavor and it worked great. I may make it even spicier next time, as this is more of a subtle cake. DO try this recipe out! So easy and fast.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yay! SO glad you had success with this cake, and thanks very much for sharing your tips and tricks :-)
Susan
This recipe is a waste of money! I know how to bake and this thing never baked, it was in the oven for two hours. Its brown on top and wet in the middle. You should really test your recipes before publishing! Won’t be coming back to your website!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience! It’s hard for me to troubleshoot what went wrong without more details, but I can assure you this recipe was tried and tested before it was published (as are all my recipes). I cook and photograph all my recipes, and the photos in the post don’t show what you described (nor do the other successful reviews and comments for this cake), so something specifically different must have factored into your experience. I’m not sure what happened in your case- whether it was oven temp, brand of flour/yogurt, type of pan, or a user error (we’ve all been there!). If you can offer some of your ideas for why you think it went wrong given your baking experience, I’d love to hear them so I can help troubleshoot further!
Kristen
I made this cake and the flavor was great but it was too wet! It sank in on itself and is very moist when cut into, though fully cooked. I followed the recipe exactly othering than adding a bit extra orange zest. Not sure what went wrong! Perhaps less yogurt would’ve helped.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Oh no! Sorry you had this frustrating experience. Hope I can troubleshoot this for you- in my experience, one of these things may be the issue:
1) The kind of yogurt used- if you didn’t use Greek, or if you used a certain brand of Greek yogurt, or low or nonfat, it may have had something to do with this. I usually use Fage or Stonyfield Greek Yogurt, and almost always whole milk.
2) The temperature of your oven might be a little cooler than most- increasing the temp by 10-15 degrees may help.
3) Are you at a high altitude? That may affect it.
4) You may want to try a larger baking pan, like a square or rectangular one instead of circular, to make the batter thinner and hopefully cook more evenly (you’d need less cooking time if you did this).
When I bake things, I often find I have to do it 2-3 times to get it to look right, whereas when I do regular cooking it comes more naturally to me. So I feel your struggle! So glad you liked the flavor and that it did cook all the way and you were able to eat it! Better luck next time :-)
Anindhita
I made the cake…it’s nice and the texture is good, but it doesn’t taste much like orange though I used more orange juice than mentioned in the recipe. I wonder if I went wrong somewhere
Elizabeth Lindemann
I do remember the orange flavor being subtle for this recipe. I also think oranges that are in-season and really ripe have a better flavor, so that might play a part. For a stronger orange flavor, I recommend using more orange zest, or even throwing a teaspoon or so of orange extract into the batter. Hope that helps!
Jan Beaty
Hi Elizabeth! I want to make this cake, but want to use almond flour. Can I use only almond flour, or do I need to supplement with a gluten free flour? Thanks!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hi Jan! Sorry for the delay, catching up on comments right now :-) I can’t recommend using almond flour as a substitute for all-purpose flour- it’s much denser and higher in fat, so it acts a lot differently than regular. But I think a gluten-free flour mix would work (although I haven’t tried it). If you’re looking for a recipe that uses almond flour specifically, maybe try this one and add some cardamom for that spiced flavor: https://spinachtiger.com/italian-orange-almond-cake-with-whole-oranges-gluten-free-low-carb-paleo/ Hope that helps! :-)
Sherre
This is SO good. I don’t ever bake, but this was so easy. I’ve been eating it for breakfast (there’s OJ in it!) and dessert!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Haha if it has OJ in it, it’s definitely a breakfast food! :-) SO happy you liked it! I’m not much of a baker either (does that make me a bad food blogger?) but baking with olive oil is my jam. Comes out great every time!
Jkgrasso
I’m really looking forward to making this cake, my daughter tells me it’s delicious. I am lactose intolerant though and the only lactose free yogurt I can get is not Greek. Will that work?
Thanks.
Elizabeth Lindemann
I haven’t personally tried this cake with non-Greek yogurt, but I use plain regular yogurt and Greek yogurt interchangeably in these blueberry muffins and it’s always worked great both ways. One thing to watch out for with non-Greek yogurt is that it has a higher liquid content, so the batter may be a little thin. Because of this, I’d try using 3/4 of a cup instead of 1 cup. Hope that helps!
Jenny
I made this cake on Christmas morning (thumbs up from an Italian neighbor) and again yesterday on Easter for a hostess gift. Since we barely got a taste, I’m greedily making this again just for us; it’s in the oven now.
I love the warm, gentle spice of this cake.
My only change is I added a 1/2 tsp of mace (a gentler touch of nutmeg, from the outer shell of the plant) and it was great!
PS I love all your recipes- your fabulous roast chicken, hummus and now this cake. I plan to do a deeper dive into your cache of terrific recipes. Thank you, Elizabeth, you make me look like a rock star!
Elizabeth Lindemann
I’m so happy you (and your friends) liked this recipe! And thank you so much for the kind words about my other recipes :-) Thanks for the suggestion of using mace- I’ll have to try that next time!
Sara Thurman
Love this cake recipe. I used lemon juice and zest. And added a touch of almond flavoring. And used an orgnic sour cream instead of the yogurt! Oh my! I have made this five times in the past two weeks for my family! Oh yes, one other change… 3/4 cup almond flour and3/4 cup bob’s gluten free baking mix instead of flour. My family that is gluten free loved it! And i baked it in my mama’s bunt cake pan!
Elizabeth
Oh wow I’m so happy you liked it! Love the idea of adding almond flavoring and thanks very much for the gluten free suggestions. That’s super helpful!
Kelly
Delicious Used regular yogurt & a whole squeezed navel orange without measuring & baked for about 80 minutes in a 8″ pan. . Very moist & flavorful!!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Thank you for sharing your modifications for timing with an 8″ pan :-)
Maria Alexakis
Hello Elizabeth,
I was so excited to try this cake so my mom and I made it on New Years eve day.
I followed the recipe but something went wrong and we are trying to figure out what it was. The cake never baked properly and was like goo … We actually left it for an hour and a half…. My mom is an avid baker. We knew it wasn’t going to raise a lot also from your photos but not only did it not raise it didn’t bake on the inside… Any suggestions as to what may have gone wrong. (My oven temperature is perfect). I love cardamom and being greek we have used olive oil and yogurt in plenty of our recipes… Thanks in advance… Maria
Elizabeth
Oh no! I’m so sorry that happened! I just double checked my ingredients list to make sure everything was in order and it looks like it is. I adapted it from another recipe that has similar amounts of ingredients, so I don’t think that’s it.
I have two thoughts. First, I used a dark colored metal cake pan. I know dark colored pans tend to transfer heat faster than glass or light colored ones. What kind of pan did you use? My second thought, and I’m only suggesting this because I’ve done this before, is that the oven wasn’t set correctly. Just the other week I was baking something and was like “WHY isn’t this cooking?” only to discover that I turned off the oven by accident when I was trying to turn off the microwave timer.
I confess that I’m not much of a baker and only do it once in a while, so I can’t give you expert advice as I could with other kinds of cooking. Hope next time it turns out well- you may want to find another olive oil cake recipe and just add some cardamom to it and see how that goes! By the way, I’m Greek too! (well, half Greek) :-)
Nick @ GreekBoston.com
This orange olive oil cake is perfect for this time of year! The flavors in them represent the best that the holidays have to offer, plus oranges seem to be especially flavorful during this time.