Full question
Can mild olive oil be substituted for half the eggs in the Apple & Almond cake recipe? It sounds delicious but what an enormous number of eggs!
Our answer
Nigella's Apple And Almond Cake (from FEAST) is a gluten-free cake made with ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour), apple puree, eggs and sugar. The cake has a rich flavour thanks to the eggs and the almonds, but does not contain any other added fats, such a butter or oil.
Unfortunately, we would not recommend replacing part of the eggs with olive oil or any other oil. Eggs are made up of fats, proteins and water. Eggs also contain lecithin, which helps to emulsify and bind different types of liquid mixtures. Eggs also have a slight leavening effect in cakes. Oil is 100% fat and if you use this in the cake batter instead of some eggs then it is possible that the cake batter will curdle. The baked cake will be heavier and also could be slightly greasy.
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