Olive Oil-Walnut Cake With Pomegranate

By David Tanis

Olive Oil-Walnut Cake With Pomegranate
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
4(568)
Notes
Read community notes

Extra-virgin olive oil gives this easy cake richness and a tender crumb. The cake keeps well for several days, as does the syrup, so it makes sense to prepare it in advance. However, wait to add the syrup until the day you serve it.

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Ingredients

Yield:10 servings

    For the Cake

    • ½cup/120 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan
    • 1cup/130 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
    • 1cup/100 grams toasted, chopped walnuts
    • 2teaspoon baking powder
    • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
    • 4large eggs, separated
    • 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
    • ½cup/120 milliliters buttermilk
    • ½teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2teaspoons orange zest

    For the Syrup

    • ½cup/100 grams granulated sugar
    • 1cup/240 milliliters orange juice (from 3 medium oranges)
    • 1(1-inch) cinnamon stick
    • 3whole cloves
    • 1cup crème fraîche, lightly whipped cream or thick yogurt, for serving (optional)
    • 1cup pomegranate seeds (arils)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

432 calories; 24 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 50 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 36 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 186 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil sides and bottom of a 9-inch springform pan or cake pan. Place a parchment circle in bottom of pan and lightly oil parchment. Dust with flour and shake off excess. Set pan aside.

  2. Step 2

    Add the walnuts to a food processor and grind to a coarse powder. Place ground walnuts in a bowl, and add 1 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Stir and set aside.

  3. Step 3

    In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff. With a rubber spatula, transfer the whites to a sheet of parchment or to a separate bowl.

  4. Step 4

    Put egg yolks in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add sugar and whisk on low speed until sugar is dissolved. Then increase speed and continue beating, scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary, until the mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Beat in buttermilk, vanilla extract and orange zest, then slowly add the flour mixture at low speed. Slowly add ½ cup/120 milliliters olive oil and beat for a minute or so to combine. Using a rubber spatula, quickly fold in the reserved beaten egg whites. (First, fold in ⅓ of the whites to lighten the batter, then fold in remaining whites.) Scrape batter into prepared cake pan, put pan on a baking sheet and place in oven on middle shelf.

  6. Step 6

    Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack, then invert onto a cake plate.

  7. Step 7

    Meanwhile, make the syrup: In a small saucepan, put sugar, orange juice, cinnamon stick and cloves. Simmer over medium heat until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Spoon half the syrup over top of cooled cake. Cut cake into wedges and serve with a dab of crème fraîche, if desired. Spoon more syrup over each portion. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Ratings

4 out of 5
568 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Pilar

I added a little flour to the food processor to avoid the walnuts turning into a paste. When the walnuts were the consistency of a coarse flour, I added the rest of the flour and the salt and baking powder to the processor pulsing once to distribute. This worked well and avoided dirtying another bowl.

Sue

Yes, with caveats. Because the recipe calls for baking powder rather than baking soda, the acid from the buttermilk isn't essential to ensure that the cake rises. You're fine there, but you'll still change the cake's texture. The acid in the buttermilk helps keep the cake tender, and causes it to brown more slowly, so you'll want to be extra-careful not to overmix, and you might want to tent the pan with foil partway through baking if you're not especially fond of browned flavors.

Andrea

Possible to ease back on the sugar? I love the sound of this but prefer desserts on the less-sweet side? Could I cut it down to 1/2 cup?

Emily

I cut down the sugar by a 1/4-1/3 in almost every single recipe I bake and it's never ruined the recipe. USA recipes tend to have a heavy had on the sugar!

Bethany

So I thought this was way over complicated. I put all the cake ingredients in a bowl and mixed with a spatula. Then I baked it and it turned out great. It rose, it was delicious and I never separated the whites and whipped them into peaks. Then I make the syrup and my dinner party guests (all 2, it is a pandemic) loved it. So if you want to save a ton of time, go ahead! I also used whole wheat flour. It was really good.

Sue

The pomegranate seeds are simply a garnish. Swapping them for anything else you'd rather eat with your cake (blueberries, stewed dried apricots, cranberry compote...) won't change anything else about the recipe.

Trix

Do we really need a food processor, a stand mixer and whisk attachment? Good chopping by hand and using a hand mixer with regular beaters won't work?

Pamela

I have made olive oil cake numerous times (Cook's Illustrated recipe)...trust me, it's delicious. You do NOT taste olive oil--you just taste moist richness. I love butter too, but oil-based cakes, e.g., chiffon, stay fresher longer--they don't dry out as quickly as butter cakes.

marsanyi

Sure, a hand mixer works. Just holding it up for 5-10m is a bit painful ...

Joyce

added a little flour to the food processor to avoid the walnuts turning into a paste. When the walnuts were the consistency of a coarse flour, I added the rest of the flour and the salt and baking powder to the processor pulsing once to distribute. This worked well and avoided dirtying another bowl.

coo's husband

I made this for the first time with only very minor changes (8.5" pan, used 1 extra egg white to the yolks because I broke one :)). It was very good - dense but light. A few notes based on comments: First, I would not reduce the sugar. It may seem like a lot but walnuts are bitter/powdery and you need to balance that. I would not use butter with the walnuts - olive oil is right. I poked holes before adding syrup. The prils are great- a sweeter fruit may not balance well.

Sarah

Simply use 1/4 cup of plain/greek yogurt and milk mixed!

Catalina

This looks overly sweet to me, too. I haven't made it yet, but when I do, I'm going to halve the sugar.

karen C.

I think 38 minutes about with my oven

marie

I made this vegan with egg substitute and vegan buttermilk. The taste was bitter metallic. Perhaps should lower the amount of baking powder given the natural bitterness of walnuts. I aired the cake out for a couple hours and made a glaze of apricot jelly to balance the metallic soda taste.

maya

Sooo soooo good. Honestly better without the fixings. Should hand whip whites

s

Excellent, very pretty presentation

Ella G.

Also: I toasted the walnuts for 8 min at 350 in my cast iron and let them cool in the skillet.

Ella G.

I made this pretty much exactly as written, except for the parchment paper, which would have helped. It turned out perfectly, VERY light and tasty.

SS

This was perfect (sugar quartered) for an alternative thanksgiving dessert!

Aviva Garrett

We make the recipe as written, but substituting pecans for walnuts. It is lovely, and even better on the second day.

Gale

I used 2 tbsp. Sugar and two maple syrup and it really was a mellow sweetness. We don’t eat egg yolks so I also used more egg whites…a half carton to whip stiffly and a quarter carton to sub for the yolks. Honest the cake rises beautifully and is both gorgeous and so yummy!

Beth

The cake had a lot of flavor from the walnuts and orange zest and looked and tasted great with the pomegranate seeds and greek yogurt. I tried to make the orange syrup but 10 minutes is not enough time to thicken the ingredients into a syrup consistency. I don't know how long that would take? I wished that part had been more successful. I used the thin version of this that I made and it was nice to add the flavor and moisture. Also, I wonder if you really have to separate the eggs- more work?

Sharon

Has anyone made this recipe using walnut oil?

lab

Looks delicious. If you are gluten intolerant is it possible to make with hazelnut - or some other type of nut - flour? Walnut flour seems would be too oily.

Bryan

Great recipe. Reminiscent of a hazelnut torte my wife's family has been making for decades. Followed exactly as written except substituted regular milk with some lemon juice added since I didn't have buttermilk. Can easily be eaten without the syrup just fine and goes great with tea/coffee.

mj

I used toasted pine nuts rather than walnuts because we didn’t have any...cake was great. Slightly sweet and pretty.

Park Slope

Very good, dense, subtly flavored cake. My family liked it a lot. Not that sweet so my son enjoyed some for breakfast as well. Easy to make.

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