This recipe for vegan olive oil cake takes its lead from classic Italian olive oil cakes, balancing flavours of extra virgin oil and pine nuts with a hint of lemon and vanilla. It’s a rich, moist cake with a soft texture.
The olive oil taste is very subtle, but still gives the cake a distinct character. The more intensely flavoured the extra virgin olive oil you use, of course, the more distinct it will be in the finished cake.
Aquafaba helps to produce a light, soft texture. If you haven’t used aquafaba before, it’s just the starchy liquid left over from cooking chickpeas. You can use the liquid from a tin or from cooking chickpeas yourself (make sure it is reduced to a similar thickness to the stuff you find in a tin). It doesn’t look very lovely to begin with, but turns into fluffy white meringue when beaten, just like egg white. While aquafaba doesn’t help cakes rise in quite the same way as egg white, it does help a cake to retain air and it seems to produce a finer crumb, unless I’m imagining things!
The pictures show a full-sized 8″ cake and a 6″ cake made with half the ingredients.
The pine nuts are not just ornamental – they give the crust a special texture and a toasted piney flavour.
vegan olive oil cake…
ingredients
- 60 ml aquafaba (liquid from a tin of chickpeas)
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- 60 g extra virgin olive oil (67 ml)
- 60 g soft vegan margarine
- 160 g caster sugar
- zest of around 1/4 of a medium unwaxed lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 40 g ground almonds
- 260 g plain white/unbleached flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 100 ml oat or other non dairy milk
- 20 g pine nuts
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F. Lightly oil and line one 8″ round baking tin (or two 6″ round tins).
- Before opening the tin of chickpeas, turn it upside down a few times. Drain the liquid (the chickpeas themselves will store in the fridge for a couple of days at least, covered). Beat 60 ml of aquafaba and the cream of tartar with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer until it is like a stiff-peak meringue mixture. This will take longer than egg whites, at least five minutes. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the margarine, olive oil and sugar until light and creamy. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat a little more.
- Add the ground almonds to the mixture and stir through.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and fold/stir until it’s mostly combined.
- Add the milk at this stage, and continue stirring until everything is evenly combined.
- Lastly, gently fold in the aquafaba a couple of spoonfuls at a time, using the same careful folding technique you would to mix egg whites into a light sponge.
- Once the aquafaba is more or less mixed in (there will still be small lighter streaks) transfer it gently to the baking tin.
- Level the top a little if necessary and sprinkle over the pine nuts before baking for 35-40 minutes until the cake is well risen and a deep golden brown on top. Don’t be temped to take it out too early and, if in doubt, test it with a skewer.
- Leave the cake to cool completely before removing from the tin.
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