Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake
Tender buttermilk bundt cake made with heaps of orange zest and fresh juice. Olive oil gives the cake a super moist, soft crumb.
This wonderfully moist, fragrant and flavorful cake with olive oil, orange and buttermilk in it, might be better the day after baking. I think it’s the magic of an oil based cake coupled with the large amount of fresh orange in it!
A few years ago I shared my lemon olive oil cake here, and it’s become a favorite on the blog. Though I hadn’t intended to replicate that cake with oranges, I stumbled upon an olive oil & orange bundt cake recipe I’d hidden in my drafts. I may have initially shared it briefly but it was rather small, the text lacking a lot of context and when I remade it a few times It sack – so it sat there waiting for me to revisit it.
Recipe Origins
The first edition of this recipe is from early 2020, the cake was half the size and made in a smaller bundt pan. I had also used blood oranges which gave the glaze a beautiful pink tint. I cannot remember where I started with that one but when updating the recipe in feb 2026, I opted for cake flour instead of all purpose, swapped out additional egg yolks for whole eggs, and changed the leavening (my cake was sinking dramatically after baking). Other changes: using more orange juice so you get more of that lovely bright, fresh orange flavor.
Recipe Ingredients
Sugar: fine granulated. Reducing the sugar will make for a less moist cake.
Oranges: fresh – wash and dry them before zesting to remove any residue.
Eggs: large and at room temperature. If your eggs are cold when you start, set them in a bowl of hot water to warm up.
Salt: fine sea salt. If you only have table salt, halve the amount.
Vanilla: I use a big spoonful of vanilla here, it really comes through and complements the orange well.
Olive oil: If you absolutely love the flavor, use just olive oil. Personally, I like to use a combination of avocado oil and olive oil here as my olive oil is quite strong and I don’t want it to overtake the cake.
Cake flour: finely milled and made from a softer wheat, it gives this cake its super tender crumb. If you absolutely must use all purpose, swap out three tablespoons of it for cornstarch.
Baking powder: to leaven the cake.
Buttermilk: full or low fat. Can sub with kefir if needed. A yogurt sub can be done but only if it is thinned out to a pourable consistency, like buttermilk.
How to Make an Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake
Preheat the oven and prepare the pan: I use a baking spray but if you don’t have it you’ll first butter the bundt pan, making sure to get into all the little crevices, and then sprinkle flour over it – shaking as needed to cover the entire interior of the pan.
Zest the oranges: I like to wash and rub my oranges dry before zesting. Depending on the size of your oranges you may want more than three – if they are small opt for 4. We want this to be strongly orange flavored.
Rub the zest into the sugar until it feels wet. This releases the flavorful oils.
Add the vanilla and salt, then add the eggs and be ready to immediately beat (if you leave eggs on sugar without beating too long, they will ‘cook’ or harden).
We’re beating this to the ribbon stage: it’s going to take around 4 minutes, and you’re looking for the mixture to have become pale in color, thick, fluffy and falls down the beaters into the bowl in the shape of ribbons:
While beating, slowly pour in the oil (or oils – if you are using more than one kind). Once it’s all in, beat to combine.
Sift in the cake flour (if yours is pre-sifted, no need to sift again) and add the baking powder.
With the mixer on, slowly pour in the liquids: first the buttermilk, then the freshly squeezed orange juice:
Beat until smooth, then pour into the prepared bundt pan.
Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in the pan briefly then invert onto a cooling rack.
Important: let the cake fully cool before glazing.
Storage Notes
This cake tastes good the day of baking and the day after (it might even be better the next day!). Just keep it in an airtight container. It’s best eaten in the first three days.
Olive Oil & Orange Bundt Cake Recipe
Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Orange Bundt Cake
- 300g or 1 ½ cups fine granulated sugar
- Zest of 3-4 oranges large (you want about 1/4 cup zest)
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 200g or 1 cup olive oil or 100g each olive oil and avocado oil choose something you like the flavor of, it will come through!
- 390g or 3 cups cake flour sifted if lumpy
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 180g or ¾ cups freshly squeezed orange juice
- 240g or 1 cup buttermilk full or low fat
Orange Glaze
- 130g or 1 cup powdered sugar preferably made with tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or paste
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tablespoons milk heavy cream, or more orange juice (enough to thin out the glaze)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Oil and flour a 10 cup bundt cake pan very well or use a baking spray, getting into all the little crevices, to avoid the cake sticking.
- Set the sugar in a large bowl (use a stand mixer or a hand mixer) and zest the oranges over it. Rub the zest into the sugar until it feels like wet sand - this releases the oils in the zest.
- Add the eggs, salt, and vanilla and beat the mixture until it’s very light and airy and when the beater is lift, the mix falls into the bowl in ribbons. This can take up to 5 minutes.
- With the mixer on, slowly pour in the oil. Once all the oil is in, continue beating until fully incorporated - about another minute or two.
- Sift in the cake flour and add the baking powder. Turn the mixer on it's lowest setting and while you beat, slowly pour in the buttermilk and the orange juice. Beat to just combine - don’t over do it. Scrape down the bowl to ensure the batter at the sides and bottom of the bowl are well mixed in.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake the cake on the middle rack until a cake tester comes out clean, around 45-50 minutes, but check it at 40 and see how much longer you need. Go by visual cues to know when it’s done.
- Let cool briefly in the pan then invert it onto a cooling rack. If eating the day of baking, glaze once cool. If eating the next day, once cool wrap tightly in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container. Glaze the day of serving.
- To make the glaze: whisk together the sugar with the salt, vanilla, and orange juice - add enough milk/heavy cream/more orange juice to make the glaze thick but pourable. Drizzle over the cake.
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This is a delicious cake! Didn’t have buttermilk, used sour cream thinned with milk and used only blood oranges. It was so moist and just the right amount of orange flavor. The blood oranges made the glaze a nice pink. Can’t wait to try it for breakfast, I’m certain it will be even better today!