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!
8 comments
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!
The olive cake was so delicious, the family loved it! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes Eleni.
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!
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??
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!