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• Oil stays liquid at fridge temperature. A butter cake goes firm and tastes dry when cold; an oil cake does not. That is the whole reason this cake keeps for a week. See baking fats and olive oil.
• The oil has to taste of something. A grassy, peppery extra virgin is an ingredient here, not a medium. Supermarket light olive oil makes a cake that tastes of nothing in particular.
• Whisked, not creamed. There is no solid fat to cream. Whisk eggs and sugar to a foam, stream in the oil, fold in the dry.
• Citrus and salt push back against the richness. Zest of two oranges or three lemons, and a full 5 g of salt.
• It bakes darker than a butter cake and that is normal — oil conducts heat more efficiently at the crust.

One 23 cm round. Serves 10.

• 3 eggs
• 250 g granulated sugar
• 240 ml good extra virgin olive oil
• 180 ml milk, or 120 ml milk and 60 ml dry white wine
• 280 g all-purpose flour
• 8 g baking powder
• 3 g baking soda
• 5 g fine salt
• zest of 2 oranges or 3 lemons
• 2 tbsp orange juice or lemon juice
• optional: 1 tbsp chopped rosemary, or 2 tsp fennel seed, crushed

Heat the oven to 175 °C / 350 °F. Oil and line a 23 cm tin.

Whisk the eggs and sugar for three minutes until pale and thick. With the whisk running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, then the milk and juice.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and whisk just until smooth. Fold in the zest and any herb.

Bake 40–45 minutes, until deep gold and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool 15 minutes in the tin, then turn out. Serve dusted with powdered sugar, or with mascarpone and fruit.

• Better on day two, and it keeps a week wrapped at room temperature. Very few cakes do.
• Almond and orange, lemon and thyme, blood orange and dark chocolate, and a Spanish version with sherry are all standard.
• A 40 g scatter of coarse sugar on top before baking gives a good crisp lid.

Method and theory: Cake recipes · cakes · olive oil · baking fats

Nearby: lemon drizzle cake · financiers · honey cake