Cretan Raisin Cake with Olive Oil and Cinnamon
Raisins
Cretan Raisin Cake with Olive Oil and Cinnamon
A simple, honest olive oil cake — the kind that keeps well, improves by the second day, and asks very little of the baker. Golden Delies raisins give it a deep sweetness that refined sugar alone cannot.
Ingredients
- 200 g raisins (soaked 20 min in warm water) — Golden Delies raisins
- 200 ml good olive oil
- 180 g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 300 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp fine salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 80 ml fresh orange juice
- Icing sugar to finish (optional)
Method
- Heat the oven to 170°C fan. Grease and line a 22 cm round cake tin.
- Drain the raisins and pat dry. Toss with 1 tbsp of the flour and set aside — this stops them sinking.
- Whisk together the olive oil, sugar, orange zest, and orange juice until combined.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until the mixture is smooth and slightly thickened.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Fold gently until just combined — don’t overwork the batter.
- Fold in the raisins. The batter will be thick and fragrant.
- Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 40–45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Dust with icing sugar when cool if you like.
Notes
- This cake keeps for 4–5 days in an airtight tin. The flavour deepens after the first day.
- The orange juice can be replaced with a shot of brandy or Cretan raki for a more adult version.
- For a denser texture, substitute 50 g of the flour with ground almonds.
Why it works
Olive oil keeps this cake moist and adds a faint savouriness that cuts through the sweetness. Our raisins, dried slowly in the Cretan sun, have a depth that supermarket raisins lack — they don’t just add sweetness but a complexity that sits well with the cinnamon and clove.
