Cypriot Olive Cake – Elioti
Simple and easy to make
This Cypriot olive cake is the easiest recipe to put together! Simply chop up the ingredients and mix them all together! A fantastic snack to enjoy for breakfast with your coffee, a 3pm pick up, as well as for the kids’ school lunch boxes.
Ladi Biosas – Premium olive oil
I’ve recently had the great opportunity to try out some premium extra virgin olive oil from Ladi Biosas in Greece. The olive oil is extracted from olives harvested at an organic olive grove in the region of Messinia, Peloponnese. The family who owns it is very proud of their unique produce and they have also received numerous awards for it the last few years.
One of the items included in the package I received was this orange infused extra virgin olive oil pictured below. Opening the bottle alone released such beautiful fruity aroma! And how pretty is the bottle?
Not quite a cake
The Cypriot olive cake, is referred to as a cake but it is not the spongy chocolate type. And of course not like an olive bread, which is more like a piece of bread with olives spread throughout it. This elioti is a savoury alternative that combines fresh herbs and lots of olives with no need for any proofing or kneading! The main herbs included are mint and coriander, which can be substituted for parsley.
Wet ingredients used
As you read on the recipe you may see a very controversial ingredient… That is substituting the orange juice for a soft drink, 7up or even Fanta. My mum’s recipe book had a couple of variations for the wet ingredients added and this was the major change. I’ve tried the recipe using the different liquids and they’ve all produced a good result. The difference though being the taste produced, more sour from the orange juice versus a sweeter version using the soft drink.
I really hope you make the Cypriot olive cake and enjoy it as much as we do! Would love to hear your feedback below or on any of my social media pages – Facebook or Instagram.
xoxo
- 20 sprigs of fresh coriander, see notes
- 2 sprigs of fresh onion, washed
- 2 tbs fresh mint, washed
- 220 g pitted olives, see notes
- 500 g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbs sugar, see notes
- 1 tbs dried mint
- 200 mL orange juice, see notes
- 200 mL tap water
- 125 mL olive oil
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs sesame seeds
-
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan forced. Chop the olives, mint and spring onion, then set aside. To prepare the coriander, wash and dry it well. Remove the roots on the end and chop the rest of the stem and leaves to use.
-
Sift the flour in a large bowl, add the dry mint, sugar and salt (add more salt if the olives are not very salty). Mix it all with a wooden spoon. Make a well in the middle and add the orange juice, water and olive oil (125mL). Combine all the ingredients with a spoon. The mixture should be quite sticky and not very smooth.
-
Place the chopped olives, fresh mint, fresh coriander and onion in the bowl with the flour, mixing with the spoon until all is evenly distributed.
-
Prepare a rectangular baking dish (mine measured 27cm x 20cm) with a bit of flour to coat all the surfaces. Pour the mixture into the baking dish. Drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil on top and use the back of the spoon to spread it all out. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and then bake the olive cake on the middle rack for 75min or until it is cooked through.
-
Once the olive cake is cooked leave it in the baking dish for 5min or so and then place it on a cooling rack to completely cool down. To then store it, place it in a cool place in an air tight container.
For the sprigs of coriander I measure them when they are on their actual roots. Hence a large bunch of coriander is needed. If coriander is not a herb you like then you may substitute it with parsley.
The pitted olives (pit removed) were about 1 ½ cups. When I’ve used whole olives (unpitted) before they measured about 300g before I removed the pits.
If you are using a soft drink (see below) then do not use any additional sugar.
Orange juice is commonly substituted with Sprite or Fanta for this recipe (same amount). If you are replacing it then omit the added sugar in the ingredients.
Can this amazing cake be frozen? How long will it last in the fridge?
Hello, can I please ask if this recipe can be made with plain flour ? Or even with rye or spelt flour? Also can I use milk instead of orange juice. Also can I use a normal onion instead of fresh green onions
Thank you in advance 🙏
I just love this recipe! It’s always a hit in our household – thank you for sharing! Quick question: can it be made ahead?
Hello 🙂 Yes, you can make it the day before to enjoy the next. Just place it in a sealed container.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made it a couple of times now and it truly tastes like home! I love both parsley and cilantro so I add bunches of both, used dried mint as I didn’t have fresh and used 4 spring onions instead of 2 (I love loading up my elioti and eliopita too :)) I also use the black cured olives as that is what my yiayia always used growing up. It is so important to have these traditional Cypriot recipes available. In most cases, our parents and grandparents go my memory, so to have a recipe to follow that tastes just like mama’s or yiayia’s is everything for Cypriots that truly want to keep honoring our heritage. Thank you Eleni!
Thank you so much Kathy for your detailed comment, it has really taken me by surprise and teared up reading it. Appreciate you trusting my recipe and giving your own spin to it. To have a record of these traditional recipes is one of the main reasons I started my blog so I am very happy you found it useful.
Really delicious!! I followed the recipe exact, however the inside was still quite soggy even after cooking for recommended time, I couldn’t cook longer otherwise the outside would be too overdone. Any thoughts on what might’ve gone wrong??
Thanks for your feedback, the pan size makes a difference. The one i use is perfect as the batter is not too tall and it has time to cook through. If you used a smaller pan or a Bundt type it means that there is a small surface area to volume ratio so it needs to cook at a lower temperature for a bit longer. Furthermore if you placed the baking dish on the top oven rack than the middle the heat would be more intense so the outside would cook faster than the inside. Hope that helps.
I just made this today using gluten free pancake mix instead of self rising flour. I cut the recipe in half and used a round cake pan. I also used ginger ale instead of orange juice. It came out so delicious and the texture was unbelievable for gluten free. I have to revamp many favorite recipes for my husband who has numerous food intolerances. He loved this so much it was a treat! Thank you!!
I love Elioti. So many variations of the recipe. I like you Maria tweeked it a bit. I didn’t have orange juice so used sparkling water instead. Also 1 tsp baking powder. My family in Cyprus uses the traditional Fanta or 7UP so I thought would try the water. Turned out to be just as delicious without the sugar!!!!
Hi Paula, yes my mum would add lemonade or fanta too! The sparking water would still act in the same way but without the extra calories indeed. And you can taste the savoury olives and herbs coming through more that way.
Great recipe. I am from Cyprus and grew up eating elioti. Whenever I go back I buy it and bring it with me. This is very close in flavor, second time I made in two weeks.
Thanks Dora, that is a huge compliment! It’s one of my most favourite pastries as it’s so easy to assemble and very fragrant.
The olive cake was so delicious, the family loved it! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes Eleni.
I’m so glad Athena 🙂 Thank you
Made this for the first time yesterday, super easy to follow recipe. The Elioti was really tasty, and enjoyed by all the family. Will be making this again for sure! Thanks!
Thanks Alev! Much appreciate your feedback! I love eating it warm 🙂
Perfect and yummy. Tastes exactly how I remember, when Yiayia used to make it. This is my second time of following this recipe.
I’m so glad you liked it so much the first time that you’d remake it!
Amazing simple recipe to follow. First time making it today and it definitely won’t be last… Thank you for always inspiring! Family all loved it.
Thank you so much Helena! I’m so glad you took the time to try it out!
Such an easy and simple recipe to follow, full of beautiful herbs and olives. This was a delicious olive cake loved by everyone who tasted it. Thank you for this Elioti recipe, such a delight!
Thanks Kelly 🙂 So glad it was enjoyed 🙂 Mixing everything in one bowl makes it so easy and quick.
Love this recipe! It’s vegan, easy to adjust – I made mine gluten free , and even left out the sesame seeds, as my daughter has a severe nut allergy, which makes her too worried to eat seeds too – yet it still came out moist and morish. I really enjoy Eleni’s easy-to-follow recipes. My mother suffers with memory loss, which makes it tricky trying to make her Cypriot dishes, so these recipes are a God-send and absolutely authentic.
Hi Christie!! My heart has absolutely warmed reading your comment! Thank you for your review, I’m happy you were able to adjust it to your requirements as well as be able to recreate these Cypriot recipes!
This was absolutely delicious and very easy to make
Thank you Asimina for trying it and taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
Excellent recipe. I nearly ate it all by myself.😀
That’s great! Love eating it at any time of the day 🙂
Hi
I started following you a couple of months ago and I am Greek although the food is the same I find Cypriot cuisine has a twist to every recipe which for me is authentic. I read a few days ago a friend of yours converted the olive cake recipe to gluten free. Would you have the recipe for gf as I would love to try it.
Regards
Hi there! I can send you a screenshot of the recipe if you like. Send me a DM when you can 🙂