Olive Oil For Chocolate Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (from NIGELLISSIMA is dairy and gluten free and made with regular olive oil. Regular olive oil usually has a milder, smoother flavour than extra virgin oilve oil and we prefer to use this in the cake if possible as it seems to round out and enhance the chocolate flavour. Some extra virgin olive oils are quite assertive and peppery and if your olive oil is like this then it may be a bit too strong for the cake. It depends on the exact flavour of the oil you have.

If you have a strongly flavoured extra virgin olive oil then you may prefer to use part olive oil and part flavourless vegetable oil (such as sunflower oil). We would suggest perhaps using 100ml/7 tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil and 50ml/3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. This should give you some of the flavour of olive oil but mute the more astringent aspects of it.