If a recipe asks for vegetable oil, can I use olive oil instead?

[Holymoly321]

Am making a packet mix choc devils food cake. It says I need 3 eggs, water and 70ml of vegetable oil. I only have olive oil. Can I substitute olive oil for the veg oil?

Olive oil will be stronger tasting so it will be olive oil-y rather than just the bland taste of generic veg oil.

Is it a light olive oil or an extra virgin? If the latter then it does have quite a strong taste which could affect how the cake tastes.

It's just basic olive oil - what do you think? Will it be ok?

Why don't you taste the oil to see how strong the flavour is? 70ml is a reasonable amount of oil (almost 5 tablespoons) so it could have quite an effect on the taste of the cake.

Why not use butter instead?

Depends how strong tasting the final recipe will be. If it's quite a delicate dish, olive oil may be too olivy for it. I use olive oil for practically everything (the green extra virgin stuff). The only few things I've found that it doesn't work very well for are mayonnaise (it ended up green and VERY olivy) american pancakes (i used brazil nut oil the other day, but sunflower would be good too) and some light cakes.

won't make a difference, honestly - with a choc cake - . I've done it with brownies and cake mixes, no one has ever complained.

thanks all - have gone with the olive oil! I'm sure DH won't notice!

Great Question,

Olive oil works Just fine in dessert baking. Just be sure to use a pure or mild tasting- fresh pressed olive oil one from an ambrosia olive tree). I almost always use pure olive oil in all of my dessert baking. The reason for this is that pure olive oil contains the same amount of Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFAs) as does fresh pressed olive oils. Those MUFAs are what is medically proven to lower the bad cholesterol(LDL), and raise the good cholesterol (HDL). So, when baking almost any dessert, don't be shy to let the olive oil flow freely!!! just use about 1/3 of a cup of olive oil to 1 cup of margarine, shortening, butter, or dare I say....Lard! It works very well. It will taste delicious and your heart will smile ;)

Have a very sweet day!!!

Micki Sannar
Author of Olive Oil Desserts