Orange olive oil cake might not be the first thing you think of when baking a cake, but thanks to the generous amount of olive oil and yogurt, this one is incredibly moist, easily one of my all-time favorites.

The orange, which you can also swap for lemon if you like, gives the cake a lovely fresh brightness. It’s the perfect cake to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee. Sweet, but not overly sweet, which makes this the kind of cake I could honestly eat almost every day.

When I still lived in the Netherlands, I didn’t eat cake very often, usually only at birthdays. It wasn’t until I moved to Greece and started working at Odyssey, where they bake an incredible amount of cakes for both the breakfast buffet and for sale, that I really began to appreciate how good cake can be, and how simple it is to use fresh fruit in baking.

This might sound a bit silly, but for a long time I thought of flavours like chocolate and vanilla as the “standard” cake flavours. Discovering fruit-based cakes felt like a revelation. They’re fresher, lighter, and honestly ten times better. And in my experience, it’s something you see a little less often in the Netherlands, which is such a shame.

For the cake

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 250 g white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 250 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 100 g yoghurt
• 180 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• About 3 tablespoons orange zest
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• 1 orange, thinly sliced (for the bottom of the cake tin)

For the glaze

• Powdered sugar (eyeballed)
• Orange juice (eyeballed)

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Grease a cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Or only use baking paper like i did.

Arrange the orange slices on the bottom of the tin in an even layer and set aside.

In a bowl, combine the sugar and orange zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar until the mixture becomes slightly moist and very fragrant. This step helps release the natural oils from the zest and really boosts the orange flavor.

In a separate large bowl, add the olive oil, yoghurt, orange juice, vanilla extract, and eggs. Whisk until smooth and well combined. Add the orange-scented sugar to the wet ingredients and whisk again until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently fold everything together until just combined. Do not overmix.

Carefully pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, over the orange slices. Smooth the top and bake for about 40–45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool before adding the glaze.

To make the glaze, mix powdered sugar with orange juice until you reach a thick but pourable consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake and finish it with some orange zest. Let it set slightly before serving.