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This gluten free olive oil cake has a tender crumb, bright, lemony flavor, just enough sweetness, and a richness unique to baking with olive oil. It stays fresh on the counter for days, and you can make it dairy free with ease!
What makes this cake work
Olive oil has a distinct flavor, so it's not commonly used in baking sweets. In fact, even oil-based cakes, like our gluten free carrot cake, are typically made with a neutral-tasting oil, like canola, vegetable, grapeseed, or peanut oil.
In this recipe, though, everything from adding buttermilk to using lemon zest is designed to brighten and enhance the distinct flavor of olive oil. So be sure to use an oil with a rich taste you love.
This easy recipe is also made in only one bowl. You need a mixer to beat the olive oil with sugar and then eggs until creamy, but then you sift the dry ingredients right into the same bowl to create a soft batter that bakes quickly and evenly.
Key ingredients
The ingredients you'll need to make this olive oil cake are similar to those we use in most of our cakes, with a few notable exceptions:
- Gluten free flour – Any high quality all purpose gluten free flour blend with a superfinely ground rice flour, in combination with cornstarch to lighten it, will work to make a tender cake. And be sure to sift the flour for the smoothest mouth feel!
- Olive oil – Select an olive oil with a smell and taste you love. Baking will only intensify the flavors, like with wine.
- Buttermilk – Be sure to use real buttermilk (or a real buttermilk substitute: half milk, half plain yogurt by volume), not milk with a bit of lemon juice, which doesn't mimic the texture properly. Here, it brings the batter together and adds moisture and tenderness.
- Lemon zest – The finely grated zest of 1 lemon brightens the flavor of the oil and creates perfect balance of acidity.
Recipe tips and tricks
Measure carefully
Measure as many ingredients as possible by weight with a scale, not by volume—especially your gluten free flours. Otherwise, you're very likely to measure improperly, and your cake may be dense (too much flour) or oily (too much oil).
Use good olive oil
You don't need fancy olive oil for this cake. You only need to like the taste and smell of your chosen oil. If you like your olive oil on a salad, you'll like it in this cake. I use extra virgin Spanish olive oil from Trader Joe's.
Beat well
Don't stop beating your olive oil, sugar, and eggs at the beginning of the recipe until the batter has increased in volume. It will also become a pale yellow color as you work to incorporate air into it. This step is part of what helps keep the cake from leaking oil or tasting oily.
Serving suggestions
I love this simple cake with simple fruit and cream toppings. Here are some more serving suggestions to turn a simple cake into a tiny celebration:
- Serve each slice with berries and fresh whipped cream, as you see in the photos here
- Serve with a fresh sprig of mint and some grapefruit or orange slices, supremed (with the entire membrane and pith cut away)
- Serve plain with a hot cup of coffee or bright, lemony tea
Storage instructions
One of the best parts about this gf olive oil cake is how well it stays fresh at room temperature for at least three days. Just wrap it tightly in individual slices or the unsliced remainder of the cake and store it on the counter.
Freezing gluten free olive oil cake
For longer storage, I don't like refrigerating cake, as I find the refrigerator can dry out baked goods. Instead, wrap each cooled slice tightly in freezer-safe wrap and place it in the freezer for up to two months.
Defrost at room temperature or by unwrapping, sprinkling with water, and in a 275°F toaster oven until fragrant and defrosted in the center.
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
It's quite easy to make this oil-based cake dairy-free. You only need to replace the buttermilk with a nondairy alternative. I recommend using half nondairy milk (my favorite is unsweetened almond milk) and half plain nondairy yogurt.
Vegan
To make this into a vegan gluten free olive oil cake, you'll need to replace the buttermilk as instructed above, plus the eggs. You can try replacing the eggs with a “chia egg” each (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
Check your other ingredients carefully, too, if you're a strict vegan. Granulated sugar is often made using bone char.
Corn-free
If you can't have corn, you'll need to replace the cornstarch in this recipe. You can try arrowroot or even potato starch in its place. Avoid Cup4Cup gluten free flour entirely, as it's made with quite a bit of cornstarch.
FAQs
Stick with extra virgin olive oil, which is made with cold-pressed olives, unlike regular olive oil, which is made with a blend of more highly processed and cold-pressed oils.
No! This cake will stay fresh for up to three days on the kitchen counter, when wrapped tightly. If I know I'm going to serve this cake in five days, though, I'd wrap the cooled cake very tightly and freeze it.
Gluten Free Olive Oil Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Handheld mixer
- Flour sifter
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) extra virgin olive oil, at room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (140 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ⅔ cup (5.333 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (36 g) 36 g cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest, from 1 large lemon
- Fresh whipped cream and berries, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8-inch round pan, and set it aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the sugar and olive oil. Using a handheld mixer, beat the mixture together until creamy (about 1 minute).
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and salt, and beat until lighter in color and the mixture falls off the beater in ribbons (at least 2 minutes more).
- Into the large mixing bowl, sift the flour blend and xanthan gum and beat until just combined.
- Add the buttermilk, and beat again until just combined.
- Sift in the cornstarch, baking soda, and baking powder into the large mixing bowl, and beat again to combine.
- Add the lemon zest and mix to combine, breaking up any lumps in the zest. Be sure to scrape down and mix in any unincorporated flours on the side of the mixing bowl. The batter should be thickly pourable and pale yellow in color.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Spread into an even layer with a moistened silicone or offset spatula.
- Sprinkle the top of the cake lightly with about another 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar in an even layer. This step is optional.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven. Bake until the cake is lightly golden brown all over, has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes away with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter (about 35 minutes).
- Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack until ready to serve.
- Slice and serve with fresh whipped cream and berries.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This cake was delicious. Light, nice crumb and hint of lemon flavour. Dairy free here, so used coconut yogurt for the buttermilk.
I’m really glad to know the cake worked well with coconut yogurt, Debbie. Thanks for sharing that.
I made this cake dairy free by replacing the buttermilk with a combination of So Delicious brand Coconut Yogurt Alternative, vanilla flavor, with So Delicious brand unsweetened coconut milk. The yogurt was sweetened, but I did not decrease the sugar in the recipe., nor the amount of vanilla extract.
The cake was delicious, and I ate almost half of the 8″ round cake the first day!
I got enough zest from the lemon for 2 cakes, along with enough yogurt to make another cake.
I will try the next cake with monkfruit sweetener.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
You’re very welcome, Lois! So glad it worked with your substitutions. I appreciate when readers share those, since it definitely helps other readers out and I can’t try every possible combination myself!
This cake turned out absolutely delicious, which I am very pleased about; I made a double recipe – one to keep and one for my niece and her husband. (My niece has celiac ds and a dairy allergy like me, and has been unwell recently.) I made some changes out of necessity: For the milk I used half plain DF yogurt and half cashew milk (Just cashews & water, works very well in GF recipes.) I used 6 eggs for the doubled recipe as mine were a bit small. Did not have a lemon so used mandarin zest, and combined the juice with powdered sugar to make the glaze.
One change that I made streamlined making the cake and had no impact on taste, rise, outcome, etc. I combined all the wet ingredients except the milk/yogurt combo, and mixed in my stand mixer. Combined all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then added dry mix to mixer bowl alternating with the milk/yogurt mixture, as one would do in glutinous baking (I used to bake a lot back in the gluten days…) I was a bit short on time and this worked well. I did not sprinkle sugar on top, since I intended to glaze the cakes.
This recipe is a keeper. Haven’t had an olive oil cake in prob 15 years. This is going to be in regular rotation. Thank you so much for the recipe!