71 Home Cooks Just Made Our Most Genius Cake Even Better

Welcome to Recipe Off-Roading, where the recipe isn’t in charge—you are. In this series of articles, we’re celebrating how cooks take liberties in the kitchen, whether that’s substituting an ingredient, adapting a technique, or doubling the salt (because you’re wild like that). So buckle up and let’s go for a ride.

Two-plus weeks ago, I pitched a challenge to the Food52 community: Make one of the most-popular recipes on our site, but change at least one thing. The contenders:

Food52 has almost 50,000 recipes and, if you scan the comment sections of enough of these, you’ll notice a pattern: questions about substitutions, theories about substitutions, here’s-what-I-did field notes on substitutions. Which is to say, people are just as likely to follow a recipe as they are to lead the way—rerouting ingredients and techniques, making the dish their own.

For our Recipe Off-Roading series, I wanted to see what would happen if a bunch of home cooks adapted the same recipe at the same time, then reported back. Turns out, a lot of you wanted to see the same thing. By the time we closed the sign-up form (less than two days after we opened it), hundreds of you had signed up.

Today, I’m sharing the results of Maialino’s Olive Oil Cake, the most-popular Genius Recipes dessert of all time. Below are all of the ways you can off-road the recipe, according to our testers. (To see the full collection of adapted recipes, just click here.)

Flour

The original: 2 cups all-purpose flour.

The findings: You can swap out some of this amount for another, more flavorful flour—say, whole-wheat, almond meal and cornmeal, or even masa. You can almost make it completely gluten-free, but more on that below.

Oil

The original: 1 1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil.

The findings: This olive oil cake is a good starting point for a not-totally-olive-oil cake. Some of you simply lowered the amount (to 1 cup, since “other bakers commented on it being too moist,” wrote Cathreen Phillips. Others reduced the amount of olive oil and made up for the difference with other ingredients, like sour cream or applesauce. A couple people opted for infused olive oils, like blood orange or lemon (“Since the main component of an olive oil cake is olive oil, I really wanted to use a fun olive oil,” wrote Peggy). And some of you ditched the olive oil entirely, replacing it with coconut oil or a sesame oil combo (“Sesame oil is common in traditional Korean cooking,” wrote Joy Cho, “and I wanted to infuse its characteristic flavor into a cake”).

Milk

The original: 1 1/4 cups whole milk.

The findings: This creamy dairy can make way for tangy buttermilk (Megan Powers did a 1:1 substitution). A couple folks called in also-tangy yogurt (both unstrained and Greek). And some even infused the milk with flavor, like Earl Gray tea. In Not-Milk Milk Land, some people opted for coconut milk for its flavor. More on dairy-free alternatives below.

Liquor

The original: 1/4 cup Grand Marnier.

The findings: It seems like a lot of you don’t keep this on hand (or don’t like it?), since it was one of the most common substitutions of the group. A popular swap was lemon-ifying the cake with limoncello (or, similarly, lemon vodka). Some kept it orangey but switched up the brand, opting for something like Cointreau, Triple Sec, or even orange blossom water. A couple people used elderflowery St. Germain and bourbon. Then there were several wildcards, such as rum, peach liqueur, Amarretto, and white wine.

Orange

The original: 1/4 cup fresh orange juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh orange zest. The findings: The world is your citrus tree. Instead of orange, try lemon, meyer lemon, lime, blood orange, grapefruit, tangerine, or kumquat.

Sugar

The original: 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar.

The findings: Paul Galvani “cut back a lot on the sugar [to 3/4 cup total] since we like things on the tart side” and reported that it still had a crackly crust and “super moist center.” Meanwhile, others played around with the type of sugar, using brown sugar instead, or amping up the flavor with an infused sugar, like lavender (I bet a vanilla bean sugar would be great, too). Bobbie Rosenberg kept the 1 3/4 cups amount the same, but lowered the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and brought in 1/4 cup honey.

Flavor

The original: olive oil and citrus.

The findings: These ingredients can take a back seat and make way for other ones. Swapping in cocoa and espresso powder (or even cocoa powder and brewed coffee) make an ultra-moist chocolate cake. Daphnec121 tried matcha powder and green tea: “It follows the transitive property of flavors. Olive oil = grassy. Matcha = grassy. So olive oil = matcha.” Makes sense to me! Fresh herbs, too, take this cake’s flavor in another direction. Think citrus-loving rosemary or summery mint.

Mix-Ins

The original: none!

The findings: While this batter is very liquidy, that didn’t deter our recipe off-roaders from stirring in bonuses. Fresh fruit was a big one, including peaches and blueberries, raspberries, and clafoutis-inspired cherries. Allison roasted some oranges and blended them (yep, skins and all) into a puree, inspired by her grandmother who “always had oranges after a big meal to ‘cut the oil.’” Some added nuts, like almonds or pistachios. Poppy seeds were pretty happy to be invited, too, as were itty-bitty chocolate chips.

Glaze, frosting

The original: none!

The findings: While this cake is A+ naked, it’s equally good with a topping. Several people opted for sheer, drippy glazes. Citrus ones were common (blood orange, grapefruit-rosemary, and lemon-lavender to name a few). But who’s to stop you from covering the cake in white chocolate ganache? On the thicker end of the spectrum, some whipped cream (and, overachievers that you are, flavored it with goodies like honey or elderflower). There was also a chocolate frosting, ricotta icing, and even a gingery plum compote.

Special diets

Original: full of gluten, dairy, and eggs.

Findings: Dietary adaptations are some of the most questions we get asked in our recipe comment sections and that showed in this experiment. Many of you reworked this cake to be gluten-free, whether that was with a store-bought, all-purpose blend (like Trader Joe’s), or writing up a DIY combo. Also popular: making the cake vegan (hello, flax eggs and oat milk). Other dairy-free alternatives included soy milk and vanilla almond milk.

Pan

Original: 9-inch cake pan that is at least 2 inches deep.

Findings: While the pan wasn’t as common of a change as the ingredients, people still got creative with this part of the recipe. Some turned the cake into individual portions: muffins, mini muffins, financiers. There was also a scale-down to a 6-inch cake pan and a scale-up to a layer cake.

Altitude

Original: not specified (aka, not high-altitude customized).

Findings: A couple of you live very high above sea level—hey there, DMK and Kara—and adapted this cake to suit your kitchens.

Have you ever made Maialino’s olive oil cake before? Did you change it at all?