Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake
This Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake is the perfect way to celebrate citrus season. It’s soft, moist, spongy, and it has the most delicious orange glaze. This mouthwatering cake is also totally plant-based, but even fans of dairy and real eggs will love it. Baked in a loaf pan, it’s also a nice size and the perfect dessert for your next tea party!
Let Them (Us) Eat Cake
You know those surveys where they ask you if you’re a pie person or a cake person? We’ve always been more cake people (although, don’t get us wrong…we also love a good pie). We love layer cakes, sheet cakes, cupcakes (which are just basically mini cakes, right?), and we also have a strong fondness for loaf cakes. They often get overlooked by cake lovers, but we find that a loaf cake is the perfect size for when you want some cake but not TONS of it. It’s a great option for sharing with a small group of people, and it’s also perfect for when you’re playing around with making a cake recipe that you’ve never tried before. If you love it, you can make another! If you don’t, at least you didn’t spend forever making a big layered cake.
We bet you’ll love this one, though, so be prepared to make it again and again.
What We, Two Vegan-Baking Novices, Learned
We enjoy baking, but we’re definitely still learning when it comes to baking with only plant-based/vegan ingredients. However, we mean it when we say that you can’t tell that this cake doesn’t have eggs in it or real milk. It’s one of the more moist cakes we’ve ever had, and it really delivers on flavor.
We’re not vegan and we don’t typically adhere to a strict plant-based diet, but like many people, we see the benefits of eating more plants. Plus, we wanted to test our baking skills by making something that doesn’t use real dairy or eggs and see how it would turn out. This cake was our first foray into vegan baking and it does not disappoint.
The Key to the Perfect Crumb in Vegan Cake? Flax Eggs.
We found that the key to a perfect crumb that was both fluffy, soft, spongy, and not dry was using a flax egg. A flax egg is literally just a mixture of flaxseed meal and water that you let sit until it thickens up naturally. This helps bind the batter similarly to how the proteins in an egg would. Adding this flax egg gave our cake the texture that we were looking for. You could omit it if you want to, but in our experience, doing so makes this cake a little drier and more crumbly than we wanted, sort of similar to a dry cornbread consistency.
Since making this Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake, we’ve added flax eggs to other baked goods too and we’re loving the results we’re getting from it. If you’d rather use a real egg in place of the flax egg, feel free. We haven’t tested a non-vegan version of this cake yet, but we’d assume that it would turn out nicely this way too!
The Liquids: Plant-Based Milk & Orange Juice
Like some cakes, this one uses milk as one of the liquids. We used unsweetened soy milk because we thought it had the lightest flavor and we didn’t want it overpowering the orange, thyme, and olive oil notes. However, you could use whatever plant-based (or dairy) milk you prefer. We also add orange juice to this cake to give it some extra orange flavor and moisture. Mixing the soy milk with the orange juice first not only makes it easier to add to the batter, but it also sort of curdles the milk a bit, giving it almost a buttermilk vibe, which helps react with the baking soda nicely (baking soda needs to come into contact with acid to react and help the cake rise).
The Ingredients
Despite having a complete lack of animal products, the ingredients in this cake are fairly standard.
The Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake
- Flour – this recipe uses all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder & baking soda – these act as the leaveners in this cake, causing it to rise.
- Soy milk – we like using unsweetened soy milk for this cake, but you can use another type of plant-based milk, or even dairy milk if you’re not trying to avoid dairy.
- Orange juice & zest – the orange juice and zest provide the orange flavor of the cake. The acid in the juice also causes a reaction with the baking soda, giving the cake lift.
- Olive oil – this recipe uses olive oil instead of butter, making a super, super moist and dairy-free treat.
- Flax egg – instead of using regular eggs, this recipe has a flax egg, which is flaxmeal mixed with water. The result is a combination that acts as a binder in the cake.
- Thyme – the thyme is subtle in this cake but it adds a nice hint of herbiness.
- Sugar – all cakes need sweetness, which comes from granulated sugar in this recipe. Note: not all granulated sugars are vegan due to how they’re processed. Be sure to check yours if you want to keep this vegan.
- Vanilla extract – we love adding vanilla to most of our sweet baked goods.
- Sea Salt – a little salt helps to balance the sweetness in the cake.
The Glaze
- Powdered sugar – like most glaze recipes, this one uses powdered sugar. Powdered sugar hardens slightly when it’s mixed with liquid, making a nice thin topping for the cake. Note: as with granulated sugar, not all powdered (confectioners) is vegan so be sure to check.
- Orange juice & zest – the glaze uses orange juice instead of the more traditional milk. Orange zest gives it stronger orange notes.
- Sea salt – a pinch of sea salt amplifies the orange and sweet flavors of the glaze.
How to Make this Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake
First, preheat your oven to 350°F so that it will be hot when your batter is prepared. Next, spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. This will help make it easier to remove the loaf from the pan later.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) together in a bowl and set aside.
Make a flax “egg” by mixing the flaxseed meal with the water and let it sit for about 7 minutes to thicken slightly.
While the flax egg is thickening, whisk together the orange juice and the milk and let sit for a few minutes. Doing this will mimic buttermilk, which helps react with the baking soda.
In a large bowl, add the sugar, orange zest, and the thyme. Rub them together with your fingers to infuse the sugar with orange and thyme flavors.
To the bowl with the sugar, mix in the olive oil, then the milk and orange juice mixture. Add the vanilla and the flax egg. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Be careful not to overmix or the cake will become gummy.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out mostly clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Gently transfer the cake to a serving dish to cool.
While the cake is resting, whisk together the glaze ingredients. Pour the glaze over the cake (this can be done when the cake is still warm, or you can let it cool completely first).
Orange Thyme Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour, spoon & level method
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ⅓ cup soy milk, or other plant-based milk (dairy milk would be fine too)
- ⅓ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed (about 2 oranges)
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp flaxseed meal
- 3 tbsp water, to mix with flaxseed
- 1 cup granulated sugar, (not all types are vegan, so be sure to check)
- 1 ½ tbsp orange zest, about 1-2 oranges
- 1 ½ tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
- ¾ cup powdered sugar, (not all types are vegan, so be sure to check)
- 1 ½ tbsp orange juice
- ½ tbsp orange zest
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt).1 ¾ cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp sea salt
- Make a flax “egg” by mixing the flaxseed meal with the water and let sit for about 7 minutes to thicken slightly.1 tbsp flaxseed meal, 3 tbsp water
- Whisk together the orange juice and the milk and let sit for a few minutes. Doing this will mimic buttermilk, which helps react with the baking soda.⅓ cup soy milk, ⅓ cup orange juice
- In a large bowl, add the sugar, 1 ½ tbsp orange zest, and the thyme. Rub them together with your fingers to infuse the sugar with orange and thyme flavors.1 cup granulated sugar, 1 ½ tbsp orange zest, 1 ½ tbsp fresh thyme
- To the bowl with the sugar, mix in the olive oil, then the milk and orange juice mixture.½ cup olive oil
- Add the vanilla and the flax egg.1 tsp vanilla extract
- Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined (don’t overmix).
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out mostly clean and the middle looks cooked through. Remove from oven, let rest for 10 minutes, then gently transfer cake to a serving dish to cool.
- Whisk together the glaze ingredients and pour glaze over the cake (can be done when cake is still slightly warm, or can let it cool completely first).¾ cup powdered sugar, 1 ½ tbsp orange juice, ½ tbsp orange zest, pinch salt
