Olive Oil Cake with Walnut Chocolate Glaze is the ultimate sponge cake steeped in a nut-infused ganache. This walnut dessert is easy, delicious, and finished in half the time it takes to make other sponge cake recipes. Shall we?
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What is it?
I’ve got a crazy good olive oil dessert to share with you. I think you’ll love it.
Remember how fluffy and soft sponge cakes are, but take forever to make? And how sometimes - let's just get this out in the open - they can be kind of boring just being spongy and yellow like that?
Well, today I promise to half your cook time AND double your dessert eating pleasure!
How, you ask?
I got three words for you -> Olive Oil Cake!
(With lots of walnuts. Plus a chocolate glaze.)
Just imagine your lips meeting the softest chocolate ganache while you bite into the perfectly spongy walnut-infused biscuit...
...and the entire experience having the Mediterranean feel with light olive oil undertones.
Stay still my beating heart!
Why You'll Love This Cake
- Essentially, you're making a sponge cake in which olive oil takes place of butter. (Nothing new, just better!)
- There are plenty of ground nuts in the batter to fortify the biscuit texture. They strenghten cake's consistency AND keep it soft at the same time.
- The cake's smooth chocolate glaze, (ganache really), perfectly covers all biscuit crevices, and as it's enriched with walnuts it creates that heavenly choco+walnut combo.
- Honestly, most olive oil cakes are bland. Meanwhile, here there is no need to add or subtract ingredients - this rich and flavorful cake is perfect as is!
- Almost forgot - the entire cake is finished in under an hour!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Olive oil: choose the highest quality olive oil you can get, preferably homemade.
Milk: sub with almond or soy milk.
Walnuts: for the freshest option buy them whole (deshelled), and grind them at home. (Of course, if you're super ambitious buy them in shells, and do the deshelling yourself!) Substitute with almonds or hazelnuts.
Chocolate: choose the highest quality baking chocolate. Substitute with chocolate chips or dark chocolate.
Lightning-fast Instructions
(Our lightning-fast instructions are here to give you an idea of how to make this dish. For more detailed information look at the recipe card below!)
- Combine cake ingredients in two batches and mix.
2. Prep the pan (grease and sprinkle flour), pour the batter. Shake to even out. Bake.
3. Combine glaze ingredients and bring to a boil on low. (Alternatively, make a double boiler.) Stir. Remove from heat.
4. Take cake out of the oven. Pierce with a skewer. Pour hot glaze over hot cake. Cool completely.
Expert Tips for Walnut Chocolate Glaze (Ganache)
For a perfect chocolate glaze, follow these two steps:
- Bring all ingredients to a boil on the lowest temperature. (Or over a double boiler.)
- Cook 2 minutes exactly while continuously stirring.
This is unlike the other ganache recipes where ingredients are added one by one.
But we do it this way because...
Low heat will allow the ingredients to melt slowly and integrate completely. Meanwhile, a short boiling time will help you achieve great glaze consistency.
And then pour this hot ganache over the warm biscuit.
The resulting olive oil cake is unbelievably rich!
Storing and Serving
Serve with mint tea, elderflower cordial, or Bosnian coffee.
Store in refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. You can serve it cold, or heat it up slightly using your preferred heating method.
Do not freeze!
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! It's a perfect substitute for vegetable oils, butter, and/ or other fats. It gives it a slightly Mediterranean flavor while keeping the biscuit soft, full of texture, and delicious.
Probably due to inadequate baking. If taken out of the oven too early, olive oil cakes tend to sink with time. Our recipe, for the most part mitigates this problem with a rectangular pan instead of a cake ring.
Olive oil-inspired cakes and desserts are Mediterranean.
Ganache can be used as a chocolate glaze. However, while a glaze is usually just a topping, ganache is more versatile, as in it can be a topping, frosting, filling, etc. (Terms are used interchangeably in our recipe.)
While you're welcome to do it, roasting walnuts is unnecessary for this recipe. If walnuts were the main ingredient in the cake, then we'd say yes. But this cake is flavorful so it's best not to have one ingredient take over the entire taste.
More Chocolate and Nuts Recipes
- No bake walnut pralines aka BAJADERA
- Mama’s Chocolate and Walnut Cake
- Walnut Marzipan Squares
- Choco Hazelnut Cake
- No Bake Wafer Cake (Oblatne)
Would You Do Me a Favor?
If you make today's Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Walnut Glaze and like it, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5-star) rating. This will help others find the recipe more easily!
You can also leave a comment, I read EVERY one! Finally, if IG is more your thing, consider tagging us @balkanlunchbox.
Prijatno and bon appetit!
Olive Oil Cake with Walnut Chocolate Glaze
Equipment
- Baking pan sized approximately 10x14in (25x35cm).
Ingredients
Cake (Biscuit):
- 4 eggs
- 5.5 ounces sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 10.5 ounces white flour plus a little more; for a protein version, exchange ⅓ of the flour with protein powder
- 7 ounces milk
- 4 ounces olive oil
- 3.5 ounces ground walnuts finely ground, sub with hazelnuts, almonds or a mix of
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon butter for greasing the pan
Chocolate Glaze (Ganache):
- 5.5 ounces sugar
- 4 ounces butter
- 3.5 ounces baking chocolate sub with dark chocolate
- 5 ounces ground walnuts coarsely ground
- 7 ounces milk
Instructions
- Cake (Biscuit): In a big bowl, combine eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and beat with a hand mixer for 30 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients, and continue mixing until the batter integrates. Heat oven to 390°F (200°C).
- Grease the baking pan with butter, then sprinkle with flour. Pour batter into the pan evenly. (Shake lightly from side to side if necessary.) Place in the oven and bring the temperature down to 355°F (180°C). Bake the cake for 25 minutes, turning the pan halfway. (If at any point the biscuit starts blushing too much or breaking in the middle, cover with parchment paper.) At this time, bring the temperature down to 320°F (150°C) and bake another 5 minutes or so.* Pierce with a toothpick a few times. If it comes out clean, the biscuit is ready. If not, bake a few more minutes.
- Chocolate Glaze (Ganache): About halfway into baking, combine all the glaze ingredients in a medium-sized pot. Melt together over low, and bring to a boil. Boil together for 1 minute, stirring continuously. Remove from heat. (Alternatively, make a double boiler. Fill a smaller pot with water ½ of the way, bring to a boil, and lower the heat. Place another pot (or a stainless steel bowl) over it, or partially inside of it. Add ingredients and let them melt and integrate slowly while you're stirring.)
- Assembly: Take the cake out of the oven. Using a fork, or a skewer pierce in several places. Pour hot glaze over hot cake evenly, and leave to cool completely. (You can transfer to the fridge for 1-2 hours.) Before serving, cut the cake into medium-sized squares. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days. Reheat per taste, or eat at room temperature.
Marwah says
This was SO delicious. Really. It was so good that my husband told me to forget about making anything other than this cake in the future. And it was so easy! I followed the directions exactly and it came out perfectly the first time! Since my oven tends to run a bit hot, I only needed to bake it at 350F for 25 min. Thank you again Aida!!!
Aida says
Marwah, so glad! I am a big fan of brownies, and this in a way reminds me of them, so it's my go-to sweet when in Sarajevo. Hope you and your family are doing well!
Sarah Amena says
Ok- this is super good! I kinda messed up though- I thought we had a bag of walnuts and then I remembered that we’ve been feeding a squirrel that visits us on our balcony so I had to substitute with almonds - well I had maybe 6 ounces of almonds total and it was a little less than I needed for the glaZe - so when I didn’t the glaze I added a teaspoon of almond extract - it really really brought out the flavor of the almonds! When I was all finished and allowing the cake to cool- I found the bag of walnuts- so next time I will do with walnuts inshAllah!
Aida says
Sarah Amena,
thanks for letting us know that almonds also work. Our readers will find it helpful for sure.
🙂
Rebecca says
This reminds me of a cake I enjoyed as a child…I will try this tomorrow!
I recall my mother using a large deep pan…what dimension pan/ tray do you use?
Thank you
Rebecca
Aida says
Hi Rebecca,
this pan was 24x32cm or 9x12-inches.
Good luck and let us know how you liked it!
Rebecca says
Thank you! Apologies for the questions...I have a pan this size, however it's quite shallow, about 3cm deep. What depth would you recommend. I really want to make sure the pan is suitable before starting my recipe. Thank you for answering my questions 🙂
Aida says
Rebecca,
No worries at all! That pan sounds just about perfect. Happy cooking!