Flour & Olive: Olive Oil Cake Mixes

Estelle Sohn of Flour & Olive

Cakes made with olive oil are delicious. But unfortunately, you can’t just swap olive oil for another fat such as butter in recipes. While a rule of thumb is ¾ to one, meaning you would use 6 tablespoons of olive oil in place of 8 tablespoons of butter, creating cake mixes to be made with olive oil rather than butter took Flour & Olive creator Estelle Sohne countless hours of cake testing. Fortunately, her work paid off, and today the brand lineup includes chocolate, almond, ginger, and vanilla cake mixes. The cakes can be made with a variety of different olive oils and “doctored” to make many flavored variations.

Background

According to Sohne the idea of creating olive oil cake mixes came to her one afternoon as she stood in a baking aisle and saw American cake mixes and international olive oils across from each other.  Says Sohne, “Since I come from a multicultural background, am married to a French person, and am raising bilingual children, I wanted to create cake mixes that celebrate our diverse, multicultural world in which many people have meaningful connections to several places.” She also noticed that beyond vinegar, pasta and crackers, olive oils were not sold with complementary sweet products and no product showcased the incredible diversity of olive oil. From a marketing perspective, it made sense to create a new set of mixes that would both be healthier than traditional ones and that could be paired like a good bottle of wine with any olive oil a customer might choose. 

Why Olive Oil Cakes Mixes?

Flour & Olive cake mix line

Sohne had never baked an olive oil cake when she decided to produce a line of cake mixes.  As she explains it, her first challenge was to convince herself as a butter-only baker, that olive oil cake mixes could produce cakes that were at least as good. She also wanted to hedge her bets just in case the idea of creating olive oil cake mixes was not viable. Shares Sohne, “The initial master formula I created was an all-purpose cake mix with recipes that could either be baked with butter or olive oil, so I actually know how butter and olive oil perform in my cake mixes.  The butter cakes, although tasty, were denser than the olive oil cakes and tended to dry out overnight.” She adds that since olive oil remains liquid at room temperature, unlike butter, it can produce cakes that stay moister for longer and have a soft crumb. “I was very intentional about creating a formula that enhanced those qualities of olive oil to provide my cakes with just the right lift so that they had an airier, lighter crumb and a sophisticated, yet approachable olive oil flavor with subtle, fruity notes that allow the flavors of the cake to shine through.  In tasting after tasting with family and friends, the olive oil cakes were preferred over the butter cakes and that’s when I knew I had a winner,” she adds.

Different Olive Oils, Different Cakes

Flour & Olive cakes

Sohne chose to create cake mixes to be made with olive oil both for health reasons, but also because of what she describes as the international aspect of olive oil. Olive oil is produced in many countries around the world. 

After coming up with the idea, she tested cakes using a small number of mild-tasting extra virgin olive oils to perfect the recipes. Since the cake mixes have come to market, she has tried oils with different flavor profiles. “In the past year, I have been able to bake the cakes with a wider variety of extra virgin olive oils and I still personally prefer baking with mild-tasting extra virgin olive oils because they allow the other flavors to shine.  That is, to me, the beauty of olive oil.  Like wine, you can pair it with food to correspond with your particular likes and dislikes.” Customers have told her that flavored olive oils also work very well with the mixes. Ultimately, she says “Our cake mixes are like a canvas for the olive oil flavors. A mild extra virgin olive oil will produce subtle flavors in our cakes while a robust extra virgin olive oil produces a bolder-flavored cake, particularly in our dairy-free recipes which really allow the chosen olive oil to shine.” Read how flavored oil is made. 

4 Mixes, Infinite Cakes

Flour & Olive Almond Cake

One of the most intriguing aspects of the cakes are the recipes Sohne offers. Just as olive oils come from many different countries, so too do her recipes reflect different cultures and flavors. Shares Sohne, “My Ethiopian Coffee Spice cake is one example – it is a recipe I wrote to honor Ethiopia as the birthplace of coffee and to celebrate the tradition of brewing coffee with spices.  Other recipes are deeply personal.  I wrote the Californian Almond cake recipe when I was living in California as an ode to the state’s agricultural bounty, including its olive oil production. It felt so gratifying when that recipe baked with the Almond Cake Mix won our Sofi gold award.” Another very personal cake recipe is inspired by her homeland. Explains Sohne,  “I am originally from Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer. Although we produce some of the highest quality cocoa in the world, we do not have chocolate cake recipes that are native to Ghana. I developed the recipe for the Gold Coast chocolate cake, which took countless tries to get right, in order to celebrate our premium cocoa and as an expression of pride of country.”

Whether for personal use, entertaining or as a hostess gift, Flour & Olives cake mixes have proven to be not only delicious, but luxurious, high quality, versatile, and able to reflect a wide range of cultures and cuisines.