Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Flaky Salt
One bowl, a whisk, and the dessert I bring to every dinner party.
I made this cake for a friend who couldn't eat butter and then kept making it for everyone else. There's no creaming, no folding, no stand mixer. You whisk wet things, dump in dry things, pour the batter into a pan, and eighty minutes later you have an actual showstopper.
Use a fruity, peppery olive oil — not your most expensive bottle, but not the cheapest either. It will taste like the cake.
Method
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Prep the pan
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9-inch round cake pan with olive oil, line the bottom with parchment, and grease the parchment too. The cake is fudgy and likes to cling.
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Whisk dry, then wet
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and fine salt until uniform — break up any cocoa lumps with your fingers. In a second bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, olive oil, milk, hot coffee, and vanilla until glossy. Pour the wet into the dry and whisk just until smooth. The batter will be loose, almost pourable — that's correct.
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Bake
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 32–38 minutes, until the top is set with a slight wobble at the very center and a toothpick comes out with a few damp crumbs. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and turn out onto a rack.
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Finish
Once the cake is fully cool, dust the top with powdered sugar through a fine sieve and scatter generously with flaky salt. A small dollop of crème fraîche or unsweetened whipped cream next to each slice is welcome but not required.
Cook's notes
- The cake is even better on day two. Wrap tightly and leave at room temperature.
- For a more grown-up version, replace 2 tablespoons of the coffee with bourbon or amaro.
From the comments
2 notes from people who cooked this.
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Iris C.
Brought this to Christmas dinner. Three people asked for the recipe before dessert was even cleared.
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James O.
I made the bourbon variation for New Year's. The cake disappeared. The bourbon, somehow, did not.
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