Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

 5 from 5 reviews

Blood orange olive oil cake is moist and easy to make using pantry ingredients, premium Greek extra virgin olive oil, Greek yogurt, and flavored from three different parts of the blood orange; orange juice, orange segments (flesh); and the zest. To make this cake, you don't need any special equipment, just a couple of bowls, a whisk, and a spatula. This moist and delicious cake has a fantastic citrus flavor and you can serve with a quick blood orange compote. If you don't find blood oranges, I provide another citrus options, and a good quality olive oil is recommended for optimal results.

Blog post may contain affiliate links. Read our Disclosure Policy. All photographs are copyright Carlos Leo, Spoonabilities

Hello my friends. Do you know that blood oranges are one of my favorite fruits to photograph? I love to make blood orange juice or incorporate them into baked goodies. I am thrilled to bring you this blood orange olive oil cake recipe, for which I had a blast photographing the ingredients and steps for this recipe. I have been wanting an olive oil cake recipe on Spoonabilities.com for a while now, and ever since I found the base for this recipe last year, I have been waiting for blood orange season to arrive again. Now the season is almost over, but you still have time to grab the last blood oranges of the season, print the recipe card below and let’s bake it together 😊. Shall we?

Pantry Check - Do you have all the Ingredients?

For this recipe, you probably have all these ingredients in your pantry. Let’s go to your pantry and checkmark what we have.

• All-purpose flour ✅
• Sugar ✅
• Baking powder ✅
• Salt ✅
• Eggs ✅
• Extra virgin olive oil ✅
• Dried raisins or dried cherries ✅
• Plain Greek yogurt. If you have vanilla yogurt you can use that instead. ✅

You see, the only ingredient that you have to buy is the blood oranges. This recipe cannot get any easier or inexpensive to make. I use whipped cream for serving but you can use crème fraiche, mascarpone cheese, or just the blood orange honey compote that we will be making today. The loaf pan that I use is 9.25”x 5.25”x 2.75”, and it was the perfect size for one loaf. If you have a smaller size, that's ok too.

I baked this blood orange cake during the week before Easter, and the cake tasted SO GOOD that I decided to make another loaf for Easter Sunday because Geoffrey’s aunt brought us a whole Easter brunch. This cake was a thank you gift for her amazing kindness. We were so emotional and touched by her action, and she made our day happier. The experience was a great uplifting feeling during this difficult time.

Let’s get back on track to make this cake. I am guessing you went to your supermarket and got the beautiful blood oranges, yes? Ok, let’s get started!

Preparing to make Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

First, get all your ingredients and measure them out. Measuring the ingredients ahead of time will help speed up the process. It takes under 10 minutes to pull all the ingredients and get them ready. The only thing that will take more than 10 minutes is to supreme the blood oranges. How long it takes will depend on your experience, but as soon you supreme the first two, it gets easier.

How to Supreme an Orange in 3 Easy Steps

Maybe you never have supreme an orange before, or maybe you have but didn’t know what it was called.  Here are the steps. The first one you ever do will seem awkward, but after that first one, you’ll get the hang of it.

1. First, cut off the two ends. This will help to stabilize the orange on the cutting board.
2. Peel away the sides following the curve of the orange (vertical) but try to not take away too much of the orange flesh.

3. Cut the blood orange segments off their connective membranes. Have a bowl ready and let them fall into the bowl.

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Steps for making Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

Here are all the steps to make the best blood orange olive oil cake. I know the list seems long, but it is very easy to follow and is not as long as it looks.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan. Then line with parchment paper with two wings.
2. Grate the zest of three blood oranges and place it in the bowl with the sugar. Using your fingers, rub the zest and the sugar together until its well incorporated. Set aside.

3. Now, supreme two of the blood oranges using the steps above. Set aside the segments.

4. With what is left from each blood orange, squeeze and try to get some juice out. Put the juice in a measuring cup; it will be about ¼ cup. If you need more juice to reach ¼ cup, squeeze another half of a blood orange. The idea amount is ¼ cup, but if you get ⅓ cup, it's ok too. If you still have more juice, set it aside for the blood orange honey compote.

5. In the measuring cup with the juice, add the Greek yogurt until you have ⅔ cup. Combine.

6. In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.

7. Combine the sugar mixture and the yogurt mixture and mix to combine.

8. Whisk eggs into the yogurt-sugar mixture and incorporate well.

9. Using a spatula, add the liquids into the bowl with the flour mixture. Gently mix until it is all incorporated.

10. Pour olive oil into the batter a little bit at a time and fold.

11. Fold in the blood orange segments.

12. Fold in the raisins or dried cherries.

13. Scrape batter into loaf pan and smooth out the top.

14. Bake cake for 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

15. Optional: Serve with whipped cream and honey blood orange compote.

Cooking Notes for the Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake:

• A good quality extra virgin olive oil makes all the difference. I use a premium Greek extra virgin olive oil from Hellenic Farms.
• For the yogurt, there isn’t a specific measurement of how much you need for this recipe. It will depend on how much juice you get from the blood oranges, as stated above in step #5. If you have buttermilk, you can use it instead of yogurt.
• If you don’t find blood oranges, don’t worry. You can instead use regular oranges, pink or regular grapefruits, or Meyer lemons.
• Refrigerate the cake after a day.
• The whipped cream for serving is optional. If you have crème Fraiche, that is a great substitute too.
• If you do not want the blood orange compote, you could make a simple glaze with some blood orange juice and confectioner sugar. Drizzle the glaze over the cake, and you will get such a beautiful shade of pink color.

High Quality Products for your Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

The amazing Greek products below are what we use in this blood orange olive oil cake. You can of course use regular olive oil, honey and salt, but to really get an excellent over-the-top cake, I highly recommend these three products which you can get from Hellenic Farms:

• Melies Extra Virgin Olive Oil is mildly fruity with a balanced taste, fresh aroma, and smooth aftertaste. Use as an excellent finishing olive oil, and a good and healthy Kosher cooking oil ideal for everyday use with a distinctive character. This Kosher EVOO is a blend of 70% Koroneiki and 30% Arbequina olive cultivars.
• TREA Greek Wildflower Honey is harvested from colonies of bees that roam freely to collect nectar from the flowers blooming in abundance on Thassos Island. This Greek honey has a strong floral aroma and silky texture.
• Greek Natural Sea Salt is an all-natural, unrefined crystallized sea salt that comes from an unpolluted, environmentally protected area of Greece. This salt contains no iodine, anti-caking agents or flow-improvers. It's as clean and pure as it gets.

Ready to Make the Blood Orange Compote?

You already have some extra oranges, so let's go ahead and make the blood orange compote. It is effortless... ok, there's a little effort involved. Supreme three blood oranges and their juices as we did before, and add in two tablespoons of honey. You can stir it and let it sit for 5 minutes, but I put it in a small pot and heat it for three minutes or less. Because I use a lot of juices, I decide to get it a bit syrupy. This compote gives such a fresh touch and extra moisture to the olive oil cake.

I found the base of this cake recipe at NYT Cooking, where Melissa Clark made this recipe inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s extra virgin olive oil cake. We all inspire each other to re-create wonderful recipes, and as always, I made some changes to infuse more blood orange flavor into this cake. I am not an expert baker, but this blood orange cake is one of my most satisfying recipes in terms of flavors, success, and photographic results.

So, I will let you go so you can go grab a slice of this blood orange olive oil cake that you just made. Remember to share your feedback with us in the comment section and give us a good rating on this recipe. Share your photos and tag @spoonabilities on Instagram using the hashtag #Spoonabilities. I can't wait to see what you created.

Carlos Leo
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Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

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5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Carlos Leo
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: 12 1x

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Description

This blood orange olive oil cake is easy to make using essential pantry ingredients. This cake has a perfectly balanced flavor with a nice citrus taste. In the recipe notes, I provide other citrus fruit options if you do not find blood oranges. I recommend using a good quality olive oil. Check the recommendations in the blog post

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients for Cake

• Greased and floured (or lined with parchment paper) loaf pan
• 3 (separated into segments, juice and zest) blood oranges
• 1 + ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 + ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon Greek Natural Sea Salt
• ⅔ cup (little less) plain Greek yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• ⅔ cup Melies Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• ⅓ cup raisins

Ingredients for Compote (optional)

• 2 Tablespoons Trea Greek Wildflower Honey
• 3 Blood oranges. Supreme to get the segments and the juices.

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan. Then line with parchment paper with two wings.
2. Grate the zest of three blood oranges and place it in the bowl with the sugar. Using your fingers, rub the zest and the sugar together until it's well incorporated. Set aside.
3. Supreme two of the blood oranges. Instructions are in the blog post above. Set aside the segments.
4. Squeeze the juice: With what is left from each blood orange, squeeze and try to get some juice out. Put the juice in a measuring cup; it will be about ¼ cup. If you need more juice to reach ¼ cup, squeeze another half of a blood orange. The idea amount is ¼ cup, but if you get ⅓ cup, it's ok too. If you still have more juice, set it aside for the blood orange honey compote.
5. Add the Greek yogurt to the measuring cup with the juice, until you have ⅔ cup. Combine.
6. Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl. Set aside.
7. Combine the sugar mixture and the yogurt mixture and mix to combine.
8. Whisk eggs into the yogurt-sugar mixture and incorporate well.
9. Add the liquids, using a spatula, into the bowl with the flour mixture. Gently mix until it is all incorporated.
10. Pour olive oil into the batter a little bit at a time and fold.
11. Fold in the blood orange segments. Then fold in the raisins or dried cherries.
12. Scrape batter into loaf pan and smooth out the top.
13. Bake cake for about 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
14. Let it cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

Optional: Serve with whipped cream and honey blood orange compote. See blog post for compote instructions.

Notes

• A good quality extra virgin olive oil makes all the difference. I use Melies which is a premium Greek extra virgin olive oil.
• For the yogurt, there isn’t a specific measurement of how much you need for this recipe. It will depend on how much juice you get from the blood oranges, as stated in step #5 of the recipe. If you have buttermilk, you can use it instead of yogurt.
• If you don’t find blood oranges, don’t worry. You can instead use regular oranges, pink or regular grapefruits, or Meyer lemons.
• Refrigerate the cake after a day.
• Whipped cream is optional. If you have crème Fraiche, that is a great substitute too.
• If you do not want the blood orange compote, make a simple glaze with some blood orange juice and confectioner sugar. Drizzle the glaze over the cake, and you will get such a beautiful shade of pink color.

• Prep Time: 20
• Cook Time: 55
• Category: loaf cake
• Method: baking
• Cuisine: International

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