Moist and fluffy, this vanilla cake recipe with oil will be your go-to-cake for every birthday or special occasion that comes your way! Find more olive oil cake recipes here.
When you have a food blog, it makes you the go-to person for baking birthday cakes and cupcakes. The same goes with anniversary cakes, baby shower cakes and congratulations-on-anything kind of cakes. Needless to say, I make a lot of cakes.
So when it comes my go-to vanilla cake for any of the above mentioned occasions, I have my personal favorite: a very easy vanilla olive oil cake.
Why you should bake this cake
I have personally made this cake 100s of times. It really is my go-to recipe for birthday cakes. It is so easy to whip up and the texture is perfect.
You can bake up several layers to make a tall cake, or keep it simple with two layers. I have covered it with frosting and/or fondant and I have kept it simple with whipped cream or frosted a naked cake.
Bake this recipe into cupcakes, a 9×13 pyrex dish or in whatever vessel you can think of. It really is a great versatile vanilla cake recipe.
This particular recipe uses eggs and milk. Because you use olive oil, you can easily make this recipe into a vegan vanilla cake. I give instructions in more detail further below.
See my Moist Vanilla Cake Recipe Web Story for a quick visual guide to making this recipe.
Ingredients you need
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- Pantry staples: granulated sugar, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract
- Whole milk: I always have full fat milk in my fridge, so that is what I primarily bake with. Fat adds moisture and flavor to your cake, so don’t be afraid of it. You can use low fat milk or to make it vegan, us almond milk.
- Eggs: When I bake, I primarily use large eggs. You can use flax meal to make this cake vegan. I go into this in more detail below.
- Extra virgin olive oil: If you’ve read my blog before, then you learned your lesson on how to bake with olive oil. Your baked goods are only as good as the ingredients you put into it. Choose a mild tasting olive oil for this cake recipe, not a peppery one.
Tools to Use
Step-by-step directions
1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using a stand or hand mixer combine sugar and olive oil until combined and mixture resembles wet sand.
3. Add vanilla and milk into sugar mixture, scraping the sides of mixing bowl and mixing again.
4. Mixing on low speed, add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides in between.
5. In batches, add dry ingredients and mix into wet ingredients until just combined. Again, scrape down sides of the bowl to combine thoroughly. Do not over mix the batter.
6. Coat 2 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray and line bottom with parchment paper. Divide batter equally into cake pans and bake until edges are golden, approximately 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. For details on what size cake pan to use, read below.
7. Place on cooling rack to cool before removing cakes from pans. Once cooled, frost as desired.
How much does this recipe make?
Despite my making this recipe literally DOZENS OF TIMES, and despite my explicit instructions in the recipe card explaining what this recipe yields, I still get comments from people that the batter was not enough “for even one cake pan! Hmmph!”
So, I decided to be explicit here in the blog post. The cake pictured in this post with the pink peony on top, was baked in a SIX INCH CAKE PAN. I made this cake for my baby nephew’s first birthday, as well as his baby brother’s first birthday (check out the woodland cake).
The recipe below makes this fat 6-inch round 2-layer cake. You can also use the quantities listed below to make a 9-inch round 2-layer cake, but the layers will be about 1 ½-inches thick (versus the 3-inch thick 6-inch round cake). The cake with strawberries layered in it and on top of it was baked in two 9-inch round cake pans.
If you want 2 fat 9-inch layers, you will have to DOUBLE THE RECIPE. You can also bake the cake in 2 8-inch cake pans (which is what I used in the video) and the layers will be about 2-inches thick.
I have mixed feelings about fat layered cakes. First, I love cake, so yeah, the fatter the cake, the more delicious cake there is to savor. But, when I want to spread layers of fruit in between the layers, those fat layers are just too much.
And with people trying to eat healthy, of course eating too much sugary sweets is not good for you. I’m finding more and more of my guests don’t want huge fat pieces of cake. So you decide how fat you want your cake layers to be and adjust the recipe accordingly.
Vegan vanilla cake
As written below, this vanilla olive oil cake contains eggs and milk. One of my baby nephew’s is SUPER allergic to dairy. He’s so allergic that if you have eaten something with dairy on it and you kiss his cheek, his cheek breaks out in hives.
You can easily substitute the milk in this recipe with almond milk. I have done it many times and the cake still turns out beautifully. It is a little smelly, but I have found that is the case when baking with almond milk!
My baby nephew is also mildly allergic to eggs. I have made this olive oil cake vegan by substituting regular eggs in this recipe with flax eggs. The vegan version of this cake is not as yellow as what is pictured here. But my little nephew and everyone who tried it, loved the cake and flavor.
The basic ratio for the flax seed egg is 1 tablespoon of flax seeds and 3 tablespoons of water to replace 1 egg. This recipe uses 3 eggs, so triple this amount. You will have to grind the flax seed into powder and whisk it with the water before adding to the cake batter.
If you have already ground flax seed, then use 2 ½ teaspoons of ground flax seed and 3 tablespoons of water for 1 egg. I have written a separate post with explicit directions on making a vegan vanilla cake here.
Recipe tips and FAQs
Here are just a few more tips on successful baking. A few I am totally guilty of forgetting myself, so it’s a great reminder for me, too! First of all, please make sure your baking powder isn’t old. It really can make the difference on how well your cake rises especially for this cake.
Please don’t blame the blogger because you used old expired ingredients. Yes, I am speaking from experience. What a difference a brand new can of baking powder can make!
Second, measure your pans and make sure you know what size you are using. I have grabbed my 8-inch pans thinking they are the 9-inch ones many times. I am constantly measuring them because these companies do not put the pan size on their darn pans! Duh!
For even baking and to prevent that dome from creating Mount Olympus on your olive oil cake, use these baking strips. You wrap them around the sides of the pan and it help distributes the heat evenly while baking.
I actually have a set of these and always forget to use them (hence the uneven layers that I did not slice off from the 9-inch cake below)!
Have I inspired you to bake with olive oil yet?! My friend Beth from OMG Yummy has a fabulous olive oil shortcake made with roasted strawberries. I also have her wonderful Marble Loaf Cake recipe, which is also made with olive oil.
I use these for EVERYTHING! They are great for scraping down the sides of your mixing bowl with cake batter or for making scrambled eggs. They come in a variety of sizes (small one is perfect for scraping out the small cans tomato paste) and the silicone ones are heat resistant, perfect for melting chocolate and candy making.
Does this olive oil cakes taste like, well, olive oil? Your baked goods are only as good as the ingredients you put into it.
Do not choose a peppery olive oil to bake this olive oil cake. Do not chose a cheap olive oil to bake this olive oil cake.
DO use a late harvest, mild flavored extra virgin olive oil to bake this cake. And it won’t taste like olive oil.
Save the butter for your butter cream frosting. Taste the oil by itself and remember this is the flavor that will be added to your cake. For this vanilla cake, I chose a mild olive oil. Some olive oils even have a buttery flavor profile. Either would great in a cake.
ABSOLUTELY! I regularly bake with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. I do this for bread, scones, cookies, muffins and yes, even cake. Baking with oil not only yields a moist muffin, scone or cake, but it can also add flavor, depending on the flavor of your olive oil.
If you have a recipe that uses butter, there is a simple ratio to use if you want to substitute it with oil. It is a great starting point for when you are making substitutions. For every cup of butter, swap out and use ¾ cup of olive oil.
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Vanilla Cake Recipe with Oil
Moist and fluffy, this vanilla cake recipe with oil will be your go-to-cake for every birthday or special occasion that comes your way!
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Coat 2 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray and line bottom with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, using a stand or hand mixer combine sugar and olive oil until combined and mixture resembles wet sand.
- Add vanilla and milk into sugar mixture. Scrape the sides of mixing bowl and mix again.
- Mixing on low speed, add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides in between.
- In batches, add dry ingredients and mix into wet ingredients until just combined. Again, scrape down sides of the bowl to combine thoroughly. Do not over mix the batter.
- Divide batter into prepared cake pans and bake until edges are golden, approximately 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Place on rack to cool before removing cakes from pans.
- Once cooled, frost as desired.
Notes
This recipe yields a 2 layer 9-inch cake with layers approximately 1-½ inches thick. Pictured above is the same recipe baked in 6-inch pans.
Choose a late harvest, mild flavored extra virgin olive oil to bake this cake. You can also use a lemon or orange infused olive oil, too.
To make this cake vegan, swap out the milk in this recipe with almond milk, or any non-dairy milk. Swap the eggs for a flax seed egg: 2 ½ Tablespoons of ground flax seed mixed with ½ cup of water for the 3 eggs in this recipe.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 328Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 243mgCarbohydrates: 48gFiber: 1gSugar: 26gProtein: 5g
PS If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.
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Hi Laura,
Cake turned out beautiful. 9” pans, perfect size layers. Thinking about using orange blossom water as a flavoring, either the cake or frosting. It’s such a strong floral, any suggestions there? I noticed you are Persian cook as am I by marriage, maybe you have made desserts with this. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Carol-
So glad you liked the cake! You can add orange blossom water or even rose water. Yes, they are strong, so not too much is needed. You can also add it to the frosting. I am half Persian married to a full Persian and yes I use rose water and orange blossom water in my baked goods all the time. Start by adding small amounts and then you can see how much floral notes you can tolerate!
Laura
Happy New Year☺️,
thank you for your response, I will try an orange version next time I have an excuse to make a cake! Very nice site you have, I will try some new recipes and let you know. Using salmon in the tamarind stew is something we have never tried.
Carol
Can I add cocoa powder to this and make it chocolate?? And if so, how much?
Cocoa powder soaks up more moisture than all purpose flour. So it is not a one-for-one substitution. You can try swapping out 1 cup of flour with a scant cup of cocoa powder and see how it tastes.
Laura
Correction! I just realized that the pans were actually 9″..Some baker I am 😀
I have a square baking pan that measures about 9.5-inches on the bottom and 10.5-inches on the top. I was super frustrated and finally bought a 9-inch square pan that says on the bottom 9-inches. Ha Ha! When measuring, the pans should be straight sided for sure, but even then it can get confusing. And in my cabinets, I now I have 6-inch, 8-inch cake pans, 9-inch cake pans and 10-inch cake pans…. I have to really pay attention which pan I’m using. It used to be that the standard cake pan is 9-inches. But nowadays, we have so many… Read more »
Hi , I tried baking this and sadly it turned out just about 1/2 inch thick (2 8″ pans)and crisp on the edges.I did use a new box of Baking Powder and fashioned some baking strips from foil and wet kitchen towels.I am going to try again today and will probly not divide the batter in 2 pans.I suspect my oven is the culprit.It is very temperamental and literally has different temperatures on two different corners! Will update my experience once I’ve baked a second batch. Fingers crossed. One request though..how in the world to measure the pans acurately?!! I… Read more »
Taste like olive oil
Hi Olivia-
As I stressed in the post above, taste the olive oil by itself. If it is a pungent oil, that flavor will still be in the cake. You want to use a mild olive oil and you won’t know if you have a mild olive oil until you taste it alone. A mild olive oil will not overpower the cake.
Hope that helps-
Laura
Have you tried other olive oils before? That can help you decide, too. California Olive Ranch’s everyday olive oil has a nice neutral flavor and I use it a lot in my baking.
ive baked the cake! it tastes so amazing! definitely will be my go-to recipe for vanilla cakesss! btw, i baked it in two batches, because i only had one pan (an 8-inch square one) but it still worked out fine! bless.
Hi Belle,
You have two options here. You can bake it in the 8-inch square pan, but it will be a little thin. Then you can cut it in half and make it a rectangular 2-layer cake, if you are going to frost it. Or you can make a double batter and bake it in the pan and make a thicker cake, which you can also half to make a 2-layer square cake. Make sense?
Laura
Oh good! I replied to your other comment before seeing this one. Glad it worked it out!
Laura
hello! i would like to try out this recipe tonight, but i only have 1 8-inch square pan on hand. will that work? and do i have to cut the recipe in half? or maybe i can store the batter for the second round of baking? thanks!
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! Your cake looks so beautiful with the flowers on top. I made it for my Dad, Mom and brothers birthdays (which happen to be one right after the other in the span of three days), and everybody loved it! I frosted it with rosemerry lemon butter cream, and decorated it with edible flowers. Thank you for sharing your recipe, it was deliteful!
I an so happy to hear this! Love decorating cakes with edible flowers. And your rosemary lemon buttercream sounds divine!
Laura
Could I replace the olive oil with any vegetable oil? I actually can’t get mild olive oil due to the lockdown. Please let me know! Also I don’t have baking powder, I only have baking soda so can I use a small amount of of baking soda in place of the powder?
Yes, you can use vegetable oil instead of olive oil for this recipe. I found this article for you on substitutes for baking powder: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-baking-powder-substitutes
Good luck and stay healthy!
Laura
I’m so happy with my result! I have a pretty weird oven which basically doesn’t get as hot as it should to bake most things. As a result I usually end up having to leave in cakes for more than hour and they end up overly dry. This recipe however was perfect. I put the batter into one bundt pan and baked it for 40 minutes. It ended up moist and perfect. I little bit more on the dense side but that’s probably because I didn’t have enough baking powder. Thank you sooo much! Let me know if you have… Read more »
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cake! It’s a very versatile vanilla cake recipe. I never tried it in a bundt – Fabulous!
I bake almost exclusively with olive oil. You can find my olive oil cake recipes here: https://familyspice.com/olive-oil-cake/
Laura
Great recipe, I love using oil in cakes, easier to work with than butter (no getting it to room temp, or creaming necessary). I needed one of the yolks for a creme patissiere filling, so I took it out of this recipe and replaced the missing yolk with a tiny bit of mashed banana (like a one inch sized chunk). I also had no plain flour, but did have self raising, so used that instead, I’m assuming self raising flour has a higher ratio of baking powder than the recipe requires as there were a couple of bigger air holes… Read more »
Hi Dominque-
Thanks for sharing! Yes, if you use self raising flour instead of regular flour, you could omit the baking powder and salt altogether. I think a lot of people don’t read recipes thoroughly and used the wrong pan size or have old baking powder/baking soda. I make this cake at least once a month for birthdays and other special occasions. And I agree about the ease of baking with olive oil versus butter. Soooooo much easier!
Laura
Yes I did omit the baking powder as I know self raising flour already has it in there, I still like the pinch of salt though, so put that in. SRflour has a higher ratio of baking powder to flour than your recipe calls for. SRflour has around 1tsp baking powder per 75g flour, so your required 280g in SRflour would make your recipe around 3&1/2tsps of baking powder rather than the required 2, making for some larger holes, rather than the perfectly even crumb in your photos. I wouldn’t normally deviate from a recipe first try but I only… Read more »
Is the vanilla teaspoons?
Oh goodness, yes. It’s teaspoons. Going to fix that now. Thank you for catching that! – Laura
I made this in two nine inch pans and it was perfect! I even added cranberries and we loved it! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Bethany-
So glad you liked the cake! It is a very versatile recipe. A great base vanilla cake and the addition of cranberries sounds delicious!
Laura
Hi, I am going to make your kool aid ombre cake. Do you think this recipe would make enough batter for 3, 6 inch cakes? Thanks, Kristen
Hi Kristen,
Yes, I used 1 box of white cake mix and divided the batter evenly to make a 3-layer 6-inch cake. It’s definitely not enough batter for a 3-layer 9-inch cake. Hope everyone enjoys the cake!
Laura
Hi Kristen- I just realized you left this comment on my olive oil cake recipe and not the kool aid post. This olive oil cake recipe makes 2 fat layers of 6-inch cake. It’s the photo of the white cake with the pink flower on top. You could divide this batter to make a 3-layer 6-inch cake, but the layers won’t be as fat as photographed above. When I’m dying cake batter, like with kool-aid, I like using a white cake mix because it is easier to dye. If you use a yellow cake recipe, your colors will be off… Read more »
Ok thanks Laura, that makes sense. I’ll stick with the white cake mix for the ombre. I’ll just have to find a reason to make the olive oil cake for another occasion!
The recipe did not yield enough for even one cake pan. Tried separating it and baked for 19 minutes. Unbelievably dry and crispy. Maybe more oil and only one pan?
Hi Anna, I literally woke up this morning and baked this cake again. It turned out exactly like it always turns out for me. It is cooling right now, but I’ll post pictures in the blog post to show that it really does work. I checked the cake after 20 minutes of baking and it was not done. I checked again at 25 minutes and the toothpick came out clean and the cake edges only slightly golden. This recipe is dependent on the baking powder to rise properly. The batter fills the 9-inch cake pan about 1/4-inch high and poofs… Read more »
Thank you so much!! And thank you for the extra advice. I really appreciate it 🙂 Fixing to try it right now!
Hi Laura! Thank you for the awesome recipe 🙂 This is going to be my first time making (and tasting!) an olive oil cake. So I’m pretty excited. I saw that you use a cream cheese icing, but I was wondering… do you think it would go well with just American buttercream? I ask because I have only decorated with buttercream, so I don’t even know if cream cheese icing is good for decorating. (The cake is going to be a ladybug, so I’m not going for a naked look or anything fancy like that lol)
Buttercream works great with this cake. It’s a basic vanilla cake. Make sure you taste the olive oil on its own. You don’t want a peppery robust oil for this cake. And yes, I believe buttercream is easier for decorating. I think a ladybug cake is perfectly fancy! Good luck!
Thank you so much!! And thank you for the extra advice. I really appreciate it 🙂 Fixing to try it right now!
Hi Laura,
The cake looks beautiful, Im wondering what is the icing recipe?
thank you
Thank you, so much! I used a cream cheese frosting for this specific cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
8 ounces cream cheese
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Thank you Laura
Hi
Please can i use cake flour instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Precious-
Yes, I don’t see why not. It should yield a fluffier cake.
Laura
Hi Laura,
I had a few problems.. the batter wasn’t enough for two 9″ round. I only filled half of one 9″ pan. And it did not rises as I was expecting. I did not made any changes to the ingredients.
Also, I had to let it baked for 40-50 minutes, because it was not done in 20-25 minutes.
I am making this cake again this weekend for my son’s birthday. I have to dig up my original notes and I’ll double check I didn’t omit something (I am dyslexic). I’ve made this cake many times and never had trouble with it. As far as the egg whites are concerned, baking is chemistry. I only bake cakes with just egg whites if I want a white cake. Just curious, why do want to bake with just egg whites?
Hi Nary- I made the cake today and had plenty of batter for 2 9-inch pans. This yields a standard 1 1/2 inch thick cake layer. I think the confusion is my picture. I did use a 6-inch pan for the picture, which makes it thicker, but a smaller sized cake. I apologize for that confusion. I thought I disclosed that in the post (I usually do) but I did not. I will make that note in the recipe right now. As far as the egg white substitution, I have not tried that yet. Baking is chemistry, so perhaps there… Read more »
Hi! Can I use all egg whites? And you should add some beating time for the steps on adding the eggs.
I have not made this cake with only egg whites. If you do want to experiment, I would try using 4 egg whites. The cake is pretty moist as it is, so I do not think you need to add more olive oil with this replacement. At most, I’m guessing you will probably need an extra tablespoon of olive oil.
There is no time set for beating the eggs. You whisk them in until incorporated. You do not want to over beat the batter as it will make a dense, dry cake.
Thank you Laura!
I will make it tonight 🙂
I’m going to be making it tomorrow