Olive oil and lemon juice make me think of salad dressing. Maybe a pasta dish comes to mind. Heck, I’d even think of a scented candle, but a rich and tender chocolate cake? That’s a new one for me. This week, I made our (which includes a healthy dose of lemon juice) for a family dinner, and while I could see a little doubt flicker across their faces when I mentioned the ingredient list, by the time plates were cleared, the whole table was convinced.

Lemon, chocolate and olive oil are all very distinct, main character flavors. When I made this cake, I was expecting their personalities to clash, but these divas are able to harmonize.

Straight after I took the cake out of the oven, I did what any trustworthy pastry chef does. I picked off a piece of the bubbled-up edge and tasted it. The cake was borderline hot, but the crust was too temptingly light and crisp to resist. While the cake was warm, the bittersweet chocolate lifted up the peppery, verdant olive oil as the main flavor note. It had the allure of olive oil ice cream, with the texture of a downy chocolate cake. Once fully cooled, the flavor balance shifted. The olive oil took a step back to strike a harmonious chord with the other elements.

At higher temperatures, olive oil’s full arsenal of flavors and aromas start popping off. As with most fats, when warm, your taste buds can fully access its top and background notes. If you want a more pronounced olive oil flavor from this cake, serve it warm. Don’t worry if you made it in advance, you can always pop a slice in the microwave for a few seconds. For a cake with balanced flavor that’s more chocolate-centered, serve this cake cool, or at room temperature. When cool, the chocolate shines through first, the lemon juice delivers a balancing and subtle brightness, while the olive oil provides an undefinable richness without any heaviness. Warm or cool, this cake is total luxury.

And the texture is incredible. The crunchy-soft contrast is one of my favorite features. It’s leavened with both baking soda and egg whites, which give it a light crumb and airy crust. But, despite all this lifting power, the cake sinks in the center. Don’t be alarmed. What you end up with is a rippling, chewy, volcanic caldera of a cake. The center may not be tall, but the crumb is fluffy and delicate and dissolves on your tongue. It’s almost too easy to have three slices of this cake. I made the mistake of leaving it at my in-laws house overnight, and I’m afraid I’ve created a couple of chocolate olive oil cake-obsessed monsters.

If your chocolate cravings continue after making this cake, try our Emergency Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Blender Cake, and Swedish “Sticky” Chocolate Cake.

Baking Tip of the Week: Testing a cake for doneness

I have a teensy bit of an ego when it comes to testing cakes for doneness. I don’t poke my cakes with toothpicks or probes. I sniff the air and press the cake gently. This practice impresses no one (except me), and it’s not fool proof, especially when baking cakes like this one.

Sponge cakes are very predictable. It’s easy to tell when they’re done. They rise tall, exhibit changes in color and aroma, and the edges often begin to pull from the sides of the pan. When done, you can gently push the center and it won’t sink; it’ll hold or bounce back.

Fudgy cakes, flourless cakes, and other dense, moist recipes play by different rules. The signals I usually rely on can mask that it’s still raw inside. This Chocolate Olive Oil Cake bakes for 45 to 50 minutes, but looks done much sooner. After 25 minutes, my cake was beautifully risen, the top had a beautiful crust, and it smelled great. If I had used my normal rules, I would have taken the cake out and it would have been a raw, colossal waste of time.

With these types of cakes, I have to check my ego at the oven door. A toothpick or cake tester is the perfect, discrete tool for this job. Poke the center as deeply as you can. (Try and poke it in a crack to disguise the hole.) If you remove the poker and it’s mostly dry with some stuck-on crumbs, you’re good to take it out. If the pick comes out with raw streaky batter, leave it in the oven for an additional 5 minutes, then test again.

Want to hear more from Allie? Sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.

And if you're looking for more Milk Street, check out our livestream cooking classes with our favorite chefs, home cooks and friends for global recipes, cooking methods and more.

Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.