12 of Our Best Oil-Based Cake Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes a cake more moist oil or butter? ›

Texture:Cakes made with oil tend to be moister and have a more tender crumb. Oil coats the flour proteins better than butter, resulting in a softer texture. Cakes made with butter can have a richer flavor and a slightly firmer texture. Butter contributes to a more traditional and dense cake structure.

Whenever possible, use canola oil for baking.

Its neutral taste will not give your cake any undesirable flavor, and you can keep the focus on the flavors in your cake, especially if you are using premium ingredients in your cake such as vanilla beans and high quality chocolate.

Mayonnaise: The Hidden Gem in Cake Recipes

Made up of eggs and oil, mayonnaise acts as an emulsifier, adding creaminess and moisture to your cake.

It calls for over a cup of quality extra virgin olive oil, and also swaps some of the cake flour for almond flour. In addition to the lemon zest we find in most olive oil cake recipes, this recipe also uses some of the juice.

When you cream butter and sugar for a cake, you're whipping up lots of tiny air pockets that work with baking powder or baking soda to create a fluffy yet sturdy texture. If you were to use exclusively oil, the cake would turn out much denser than you may have intended.

The texture of cakes made with oil is—in general—superior to the texture of cakes made with butter. Oil cakes tend to bake up loftier with a more even crumb and stay moist and tender far longer than cakes made with butter.

The oils which should be avoided for cooking are oils like soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and safflower. These oils have unstable fats and will decimate the nutritional properties of your food. Oh, and they'll give you a big fat health risk in the meantime.

Canola oil: Canola oil is low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fats, which can help lower bad cholesterol levels. It also has a high smoke point, making it suitable for baking at high temperatures.

Olive oil wins in taste and flavor, and it is a versatile oil to keep on hand for many different cooking applications, including frying. However, sunflower oil's mild taste and higher smoke point makes it a good choice if you are baking or working at extremely high cooking temperatures.

Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise. If the flour you use is self-raising, it already has a leavening agent in it. Make sure your butter is room temperature, and beat the butter and sugar together until properly creamed.

What adds richness to cakes? ›

In addition to its delicious taste, butter adds richness and flavor to your baked goods. Different types of butter are available, but salted and unsalted butter are the two most commonly used in baking.

Use Real Butter

It's also made from plant oils, whereas, butter is made from dairy and rich in saturated fats. That fat helps create moisture in our cakes. So when you're at the store, make sure you reach for butter (I always use unsalted), not margarine.

This is because too much batter in one cake tin may result in the weight of the batter being too much for the cake to support, causing the cake to collapse and sink in the middle as it bakes. This is especially true for cake recipes which have a more softer, delicate structure to them, which many of my cake recipes do.

Olive oil tends to make the cake a bit more dense, so adding whipped egg whites will lighten things up to create a beautiful texture. The resulting cake is still dense (not as dense as a pound cake), but it melts in your mouth.

Your olive oil cake will keep well for 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. If frosted, it needs to be kept refrigerated. Let the cake cool fully before storing.

Add Milk, Coffee, or Soda

Boxed cakes often call for water, but swapping it out for equal amounts of milk, coffee, or even soda will give you a moister, more tender, and flavorful cake. For white cake mix, you can use whole milk or your favorite non-dairy milk.

High-quality olive oil ensures a cake that is rich, flavorful, and moist. The thick texture of buttermilk provides structure to the batter for a cake that's tangy and light.