I'm in love with this tasty healthy gluten-free orange olive oil cake recipe! The brightness from the citrus makes this the perfect spring or Mother's Day recipe. I personally love this grain-free olive oil cake, simply dusted with only powdered sugar.

Healthy gluten-free olive oil cake on a serving plate with oranges.

📋 Recipe Snapshot

Quick Recipe Facts

⏱️ Ready In: 1 hour, plus 20 to 30 minutes to cool.

👩‍🍳 Skill Level: Easy.

🍊 Flavor: Lightly sweet, citrusy, moist, and rich with a delicate olive oil flavor.

🌿 Diet: Gluten-free, dairy-free without optional dairy toppings, and vegetarian.

🍰 Best For: Mother's Day, spring celebrations, brunch, afternoon tea, or a lighter special-occasion dessert.

❄️ Make Ahead: Bake the cake one day in advance, allow it to cool completely, and add powdered sugar, orange slices, berries, or your preferred topping before serving.

🌀 Harmony Highlight: Extra-virgin olive oil, almond flour, applesauce, and fresh orange create a satisfying dessert with healthy fats, bright citrus flavor, and 5 grams of fiber per slice.

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Quick Recipe Facts
Why You'll Love This Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe?
🎂 Easy Gluten-Free Olive Oil Cake Recipe
🍎 Applesauce Used As Fat Replacement in Recipes!
🍊 Health and Beauty Benefits of Oranges
🧡 Learn How to Make a Simple & Delicious Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe
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🧡 Learn How to Make an Easy Powdered Sugar Glaze Recipe
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Cook To Feel Better, Every Day
😀 Try This Healthy Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe - Perfect for Mother's Day!
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💬 Comments

This gluten-free olive oil cake is perfect sprinkled with just some powdered sugar, but just as tasty if you want to add some whipped cream or a sugar glaze.

Why You'll Love This Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe?

Perfect Mother's Day Recipe - Healthy dessert recipe to serve on Mother's Day.
Heart Healthy - Phenolic compounds and carotenoids are great for heart health.
Functional Dessert - It's a functional dessert designed to nourish and satisfy.
Gluten-Free - A gluten-free cake made with delicious oranges too? Yes, with naturally gluten-free ingredients, you can make this simple dessert today.

This functional nutrition dessert recipe is one everyone will enjoy.

🎂 Easy Gluten-Free Olive Oil Cake Recipe

At first, you might be intimidated at trying to make an olive oil cake at home, but it's fairly easy to make. The orange is so refreshing, but you can also substitute the orange juice for lemon juice and zest.

This is such an easy change, especially once you've made this cake before. It is a nice surprise to change it up to keep things interesting.

They are both equally delicious. I love how this is a healthy version of your traditional olive oil cake. If you have picky eaters who hear the word healthy and run, this will totally fool them. This grain-free cake tastes even better than your traditional olive oil cake recipe.

🍎 Applesauce Used As Fat Replacement in Recipes!

I want to talk about an important ingredient in this olive oil cake. Applesauce. Applesauce is a wonderful substitution for oil in most baked goods. It's a secret hack with many health conscious chefs out there. Over the years, I have played around with substituting applesauce for oil and have had great success.

I also consider my teachings from my university introductory foods class, where I learned so many wonderful things, including fat modifications, fat selection, and so much more. I loved that class so much because it properly taught me how to modify recipes in so many ways.

Today I use all that knowledge to create all my delicious healthy recipes for you. Getting back to fats, since this recipe is a healthier olive oil recipe, here's a cool piece of knowledge. The egg yolk in baked goods batter causes the increased darkening of the fat in recipes. So, if you replace all the eggs in a recipe with only egg whites, your baked goods won't appear the same in color.

Why use unsweetened applesauce, you might be asking? A half a cup of regular oil is about 955 calories, with 108 grams of fat, zero fiber, and no vitamins and minerals.

A half a cup of unsweetened applesauce is 51 calories, 0.1 grams of fat, 1.3 grams of fiber, copper, iron, B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium. This changes the entire nutritional content of your baked goods into much more nutrient-dense healthier results.

🍊 Health and Beauty Benefits of Oranges

Oranges offer wonderful health benefits. They can boost your immune system but also help with heart health. Most people already know that oranges are full of vitamin C. In addition to that health benefit, oranges are a powerful antioxidant-rich fruit.

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They help protect the body from free radicals that could otherwise damage the cells of your body. Potassium found in oranges helps lower blood pressure, a heart-protective property.

The fiber in the orange helps with your digestive health and can help reduce cholesterol levels. Oranges can also help with cognitive function. Studies have shown an improvement in blood flow to the brain after consuming citrus juices.

Key Nutrients of Oranges

Simple and delicious Mother's day orange olive oil cake recipe

🧡 Learn How to Make a Simple & Delicious Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe

Learn how easy it is to make a Mother's Day dessert to wow your guests with this orange olive oil cake recipe.

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Gluten-free orange olive oil cake recipe.

Healthy and Easy Orange Gluten-Free Olive Oil Cake

Laura Villanueva

This is the perfect Mother's Day dessert. The gentle sweetness of this delicious grain-free olive oil cake must be experienced to understand how amazing this tastes.

If you like this recipe, please leave a star rating in the comments section of this post to help other followers in our EYN community!

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Course Desserts

Cuisine American

Servings

Calories 316 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

¼ cup orange, juice
1 tablespoon orange, zest (Grated, one orange)
¼ cup applesauce (Unsweetened)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, gluten-free
½ cup almond flour
¼ cup sugar, coconut
4 large eggs
¼ teaspoon sea salt, fine
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup maple syrup

Optional toppings:

sugar, powdered
orange
whipped cream
vanilla frosting
sugar glaze (Check out notes)
mixed berries

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Rub a tablespoon of olive oil along the bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake pan.
Line the bottom with parchment paper. Then rub an additional tablespoon of olive oil all over the top of the parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, vanilla extract, sugar, maple syrup, orange juice, orange zest, applesauce, and eggs.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: almond flour, gluten-free, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until the batter is well combined.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan, smoothing out the top layer. Place into the preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Around the 40-minute time, check to make sure the top is not too golden. If so, tent the cake pan with aluminum foil. Continue to bake for the remaining 5 minutes.
Use a toothpick or small knife to check that the cake is still not wet on the inside. If it comes out clean, it's ready to remove from the oven.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely, roughly 20-30 minutes. When removing it from the cake pan, loosen the edges with a knife and invert the pan onto a wire rack.
Dust with powdered sugar and decorate with some fresh orange slices, or serve with whipped cream. You can even try a vanilla frosting. See notes if you prefer to top with a sugar glaze.

Video

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🌿 The Harmony Method™ Pillars Supported 🌿

Rotation | Gut-Hormone-Mood | Flavor Infusion | Mindful Meal Mapping

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Slice of CakeCalories: 316kcalCarbohydrates: 42gProtein: 9gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 93mgSodium: 309mgPotassium: 82mgFiber: 5gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 156IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 97mgIron: 2mg

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. Modify as needed and enjoy.

Keyword gluten free cake, Mother's Day recipe, olive oil cake, orange cake, orange cake recipe

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