This is a gloriously rustic olive oil cake that’s both dairy-free and gluten-free, making it ideal for any gathering since just about everyone can enjoy it! I really love that hazelnut is the front-and-centre flavour, with the olive oil whispering quietly in the background. With meringue-like crispy edges and a brownie-ish centre, this sweet number is wickedly addictive.
Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake
This is actually the Lemon Olive Oil cake from a delightful cookbook called “Just Desserts” by Charlotte Ree. I’ve taken the liberty of renaming it because I enjoy the hazelnut flavour in it so much, I wanted to headline it – so I did!
Usually with olive oil cakes, the olive oil is the dominant flavour. Recipes also typically encourage you to use very good olive oil (read: expensive!) for this reason, which tends to result in quite an assertive flavour. But in this cake, hazelnut is the primary flavour and that’s a reason I enjoy this so much. My taste buds get kind of confused when I taste strong olive oil in sweet cakes. I think, “salad dressing”! #SimpleGal
In this cake though the role of olive oil is to produce a rich, brownie-like cake with a moistness you can’t achieve with just butter.
But my favourite part is the crust around the corners, sides and surface! It’s a bit crisp – meringue-like is how I describe it. I want to cut it all off and run away with it. Catch me if you can!!
Proof of damp brownie-like insides, in case you doubt me:
What you need to make this Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake
Here’s what you need to make this:
Extra virgin olive oil – As mentioned above, despite the name a really nice thing about this cake is that there’s no need to invest in expensive olive oil for it since it’s not the primary flavour. Just use a decent-quality one that you use for everyday salads.
The olive oil brings a moistness to the cake that you don’t get with butter. Plus, it makes it dairy-free!
Hazelnut meal – This is ground hazelnuts, the hazelnut equivalent of the more well-known almond meal used in flourless baked treats like Flourless Chocolate Cake, Flourless Chocolate Brownies and Orange Cake.
In addition to taking the place of flour in cakes, hazelnut meal brings a wonderful nutty flavour to cakes. So much more interesting than tasteless wheat flour!!!
Lemon zest – Finely grated, using a microplane or similar. Being a delicately-flavoured cake, this is key ingredient. You can taste the lemon but it’s more a back note flavour that accentuates the hazelnut. Initially, I was unsure why lemon was included in a nutty cake like this until I was forced to make a version without (I had a fruit bowl filled with white-zestless lemons!). The cake was way less interesting in taste and hazelnut flavour more muted. The takeaway: don’t skip the lemon!
Baking soda / bi-carbonate soda – This is what gives the cake a bit of lift, though the inside of the cake will not have an airy, spongey crumb typical of flour cakes. It’s rather moist and gooey like brownies, which is by design.
Baking powder can be substituted but because it is not as powerful, the cake will be a little more dense. Not a disaster though by any means!
Sugar – Caster sugar / superfine sugar is best because it dissolves more easily in the batter. However, regular white sugar (granulated sugar) will work just fine too.
Eggs – Large ones, 50 to 60g / 2 oz each (cartons are usually labelled “large eggs”) at room temperature, not fridge-cold, as cold eggs don’t aerate as well when beaten.
Vanilla extract – Extract is better than artificial vanilla essence which is, well, fake. I personally wouldn’t waste pricey vanilla beans on this cake. I reserve vanilla beans for things like Creme Brûlée, Flan Patissiére (French Custard Tart), pouring custard (Creme Anglaise) etc.
Pinch of salt – Generally good practice in most sweet things is a sprinkle of salt to bring out the flavour of the other ingredients. It doesn’t make it salty.
How to make Charlotte’s Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake
It’s a breeze – and rather forgiving too. Remember, we are not going for Michelin-starred patisserie perfection here. This is a “shabby chic”-vibe cake we’re making here!
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. The hazelnut meal, baking soda, lemon zest and salt.
Beat wet ingredients – Beat the eggs, sugar, and olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes on speed 7 with an electric beater until it changes from yellow to pale yellow, and thickens to the texture of thickened/heavy cream – in unwhipped form (which is thicker than standard pouring cream).
Stir dry ingredients into the egg mixture.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake 45 minutes. It will puff up dramatically but don’t get too excited, it collapses again as it cools!
Cool completely in the pan before releasing from the springform pan to serve. This cake is rather delicate to handle when warm so really, be patient and let it cool!
What it looks like – The cake will rise in the oven then deflate as it cools. Don’t be alarmed when you see that it settles with a “crater” in the centre. This is the way it is supposed to be! And as you eat you will appreciate the contrast it effects, ie. you get more of the fluffier, addictively-crispy meringue-ish sides and the right amount of the rich, fudge-y brownie-like centre of the cake.
Sprinkle the cake with roughly-chopped toasted hazelnuts, if you want to double up on the hazelnut flavour like I do. Finally, dust with icing sugar, slice and serve!
Charlotte suggests serving with a dollop of crème fraîche, which I did when I served it to friends. I even served the cake on a plate and provided forks. But in real life, I just grab a slice with my hand. Make it. And you’ll understand what I mean! – Nagi x
PS. I realise I’ve used the description “brownie” a lot to describe the cake’s texture, but there is no chocolate flavour here! Sorry if you’ve been confused.
Watch how to make it
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Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake (GF, DF)
Ingredients
- 150g / 5oz hazelnut meal (1 3/4 cups firmly packed) (ground hazelnut, sub almond meal, Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda / bicarbonate soda , sifted (Note 2)
- Zest of 1 lemon , finely grated (about 2 teaspoon or so)
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (Note 3)
- 1 cup caster sugar / superfine sugar (sub ordinary/granulated sugar)
- 3 large eggs , at room temperature (Note 4)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Optional decoration:
- 1/4 cup whole hazelnuts , toasted then roughly chopped (Note 5)
- Icing sugar / confectioners’ sugar , for dusting
- Crème fraîche (dollop for company)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°C / 340°F (150°C fan). Grease a 20 cm/8" springform pan with olive oil then line with baking paper (parchment paper), then grease the paper. (Note 6)
- Dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, mix the hazelnut meal, baking soda, lemon and salt.
- Beat wet ingredients: In a large bowl, beat the olive oil, eggs and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes on speed 7 of a handheld beater or until it becomes pale and thick (like pouring cream).
- Add vanilla and beat on speed 1 for 10 seconds.
- Mix in dry: Add the Dry ingredients and mix in gently using a rubber spatula.
- Bake 45 minutes: Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. It will puff up dramatically in the oven but it collapses as it cools.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and allow the cake to fully cool in the pan before releasing from the springform pan. This is a rustic cake that has higher edges and a flatter centre. Perfect proportions, I say: plenty of meringue-like edges and not an overwhelming amount of the rich brownie-like centre of the cake!
- Decorate: Sprinkle with hazelnuts and dust with icing sugar, if desired. Serve fully cool.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When it rains, Dozer really enjoys standing at the doggie door holding the door open with his head, looking out and contemplating the meaning of life as he watches the rain pitter-patter on the deck …..
… as well as letting the blustery cold wind blast inside through the hole, not to mention all the RAIN that comes in!!! 😖
Huge fan of this cake! I made it for a DF friend, and it’s since become a go-to light dessert. So easy and so delicious! Highly recommend it with the creme fraiche for those who can have some dairy.
Another successful recipe, I felt I’m overbaking it because the top got crunchy & toothpick test doesn’t seemed to work on this one because of all the olive oil, I end up turning off the oven 7 minutes early but still inside the oven.. still so good. Thanks Nagi. <3
I have made this recipe twice, once with hazelnut meal and once with almond meal. I followed the recipe exactly both times and it turned out wonderful. Lots of compliments and a new favourite. Thanks Nagi!
Fabulous, everyone really loved it.
Made it exactly to recipe, 150 degree oven if fan forced.
texture was perfect. Used baking powder first time i made it and bi-carb second time. Bi carb better- read Nagi’s notes.
Flavours were nice, but not as wow as expected. Solid.. sorry being honest!
Amazing flavour and so good to have an alternative gluten free cake. I had a couple of issues with the recipe, though.
Firstly, as others have mentioned, the hazelnut meal cup/weight ratio is off. If you look at almond meal conversions, 1.75 cups should be more like 210g. I measured by weight and it seemed a bit too moist.
Secondly, it would be good for the recipe to mention how you know the cake is done (can you test with skewer for this type of cake?). The bake times differ by 5 min between the recipe and video.
If using cooking salt, I’d suggest adding it with the wet ingredients to avoid getting random salty bites.
Finally, does anyone know of a nice Australian olive oil? The ‘mellow’ one I bought was bitter, so I had to use Spanish Moro brand.
Sorry for nit-picking, it’s definitely worth a go. The hazelnut/lemon combo reminds me of European Christmas biscuits.
I’ve made this cake already 4 times and every time it’s a HUGE success!! For NY’s Eve I tripled all the ingredients to make a cake for 15 people and it was gone literally in 10 min – the esters asked the recipe to make it at home as well. The only thing I added was toasting the almond meal in the oven for 10 min just to give it a nice golden a little crispy touch and then I proceeded with the recipe as directed. It’s sooo good and sooooo easy to make! Thank you Nagi! And happy holidays!
This Hazelnut cake sounds lovely. How can I make it vegan ie. Egg substitute?
Hazelnut olive oil cake is amazing. Excellent
An absolutely delicious cake that everyone loved. So light and tasty! We’ve decided to make it again for Christmas Day. We did increase the hazelnut meal to 200g instead of 100g for 8 servings though as it didn’t look like enough. Highly recommend. Thanks Nagi!
This cake is so delicious- it’ll definitely be made again soon! I just weighed out the hazelnut meal, grated my fresh lemons, 2 eggs – perfect, all we could taste were hazelnuts & lemon 😋
Hi. I made this Hazelnut cake first just using ground up hazelnuts and it was lovely and guey. 2nd time I bought some hazelnut flour which I used and the cake was really dry. Tasty but not quite right. Any help appreciated. Angela🐾
I was really happy with this cake, especially as I am not a baker!
I also find my local supermarket no longer stocks hazelnut meal. I have however bought some cashew meal and wonder if I can make a cashew olive oil cake. Has anyone tried this and if so how would I adjust the recipe?
Thank you in advance
Excellent cake. Was looking for a good gluten-free alternative for friends. Ridiculously easy to make. Added a bit more hazelnut meal and almond meal for volume. The taste came out a bit eggy (perhaps alkaline) however, made sure to mix well, used one less egg on another go. Any suggestions?
According to the recipe 150g hazelnut meal equals 1 3/4 cups . I weighed and measured multiple times, but 1 3/4 cups seemed to weight a lot more than 150g. Could it be because I made my own hazelnut meal?
Cake came out ok but not as great as I expected.
I had the same question! I used almond flour and was confused about the weight vs cups thing too. I ended up going with heaped cup measurements. This cake was ridiculously tasty and wow. It is so moist and tastes buttery which is a pleasant surprise since there is no butter here. This is easily the best cake I’ve baked!!
This cake should come with a warning: Excessive drooling may occur whilst waiting for cake to cool enough to cut.
Mum’s out of town and I forget to bring it to work to share. Whole cake. For. Me. Shame!
So worth it. Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait for your cook book Nagi. xx
I want to make the chocolate version of this cake but I can’t seem to find where you mentioned this??
I am currently making this and remembered my Gran is visiting me next Wednesday! Do you think I could freeze half and it would still be okay? Thank you!
Hello, would love to make this cake without eggs, what could I use instead.
Had to use almond flour instead of hazelnut, but it was still delicious! I am a novice baker, so I really appreciate the video and the clear instructions.