Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake – Intensely Chocolate, Luxuriously Textured Cake for Your Valentine
One bowl is all it takes to make this amazing Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake. You’ll love its luxurious texture and intense chocolate flavor and aroma. A perfect chocolate cake for celebrating both Valentine’s Day and other 
special occasions throughout the year.
Simpler is better
With my past as a pastry chef, I read the instructions and immediately wanted to “upgrade” the technique. So glad I kept it simple. The technique for making Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake involves just one bowl and a hand-held (or stand) mixer. Truly, this is one of the simplest scratch cakes ever. And the results: amazing flavor, aroma and texture.
Love at first bite
Such a memorable first bite—I couldn’t believe what I 
was tasting. So delicious, so rich, so luxurious, so intensely chocolate. And, so easy. I’m guessing it will be love at first bite for you, too…and for every bite thereafter.
Freezes beautifully
Even when frozen, it is beyond easy to cut off a thin sliver of Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake and eat it out of hand.
Olive oil
“Called liquid gold by many throughout history, olive oil has played an important part in the lives of the Mediterranean people.” www.italianfoodforever.com
Olive oil cakes have been signature desserts in Italy, Greece, Spain, and actually everywhere that olives grow. Mostly flavored with lemon or other citrus fruit, easy to make, no-icing olive oil cakes include flour. What a delicious discovery—an olive oil cake both gluten-free and chocolate, too.
Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake
This fudgy, moist, intensely chocolate cake is easily made with one bowl and a handheld or stand mixer. For the best tasting Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake, choose premium quality dark chocolate and extra-virgin olive oil. I’ve used dark chocolate with 72% cocoa from both Endangered Species and Trader Joe’s with exceptional results.
Inspired by and lightly adapted (including reducing the sugar by half) from a fabulous recipe from Hanady of https://hanadykitchen.com.
- Serve gluten and dairy-free Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake with lightly sweetened Coconut Cream or tangy Greek Yogurt.
- Hint: You can turn either of them pink with a teaspoon or two of powdered, freeze-dried raspberries.
- You could also enjoy this cake with a swirl of Raspberry Purée.
- Learn how to toast and peel hazelnuts here.
Makes one 9 – inch layer cake Printer-Friendly Recipe
Total time 45 minutes
Ingredients
7 oz. quality dark chocolate (72% cocoa), cut into ½ -1-inch sized pieces
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (I’m using EVOO from California Olive Ranch)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup organic granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
Garnish
Dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder
Chocolate curls
Toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
Freeze-dried raspberries
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan with parchment paper. Set aside.- Place half an inch or so of water in a 10-inch sauté pan over medium-low heat. Combine the chocolate, olive oil and salt together in a medium, stainless-steel bowl. Place the bowl in the sauté pan, letting the warm water slowly melt the chocolate. Stir the olive oil and chocolate together with a silicone spatula until the chocolate has completely melted. Remove the bowl from the water.
- Crack the eggs into a measuring cup with a pour spout.
- Use a handheld (or stationary)
mixer on the lowest speed to blend the sugar into the chocolate. When smooth, add the vanilla. - With the mixer still on its lowest speed, incorporate one egg at a time into the batter. The batter will thicken with each addition.
- Combine the cocoa powder with the optional espresso powder, then mix into the cake batter.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake about 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean or slightly streaky. Additionally, the center of the cake slightly puffs and springs back when lightly touched.
- Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the
pan. Then undo the “spring” to remove the cake. Carefully invert the cake onto a cutting board or plate. Pull off the parchment paper. Gently turn the cake right side up onto a serving platter. - Serve Chocolate Flourless Olive Oil Cake warm or at room temperature lightly dusted with cocoa powder. Then garnished with a scattering of peeled and coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts, chocolate curls and freeze-dried raspberries.