a plate of Portuguese olive oil cake inside parchment paper on a black and white plate

Portuguese pão de ló cake

Name: Portuguese pão de ló cake
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 80ml olive oil plus extra for the tin; 100g caster sugar; 4 eggs plus 1 yolk; 20g plain flour; extra-virgin olive oil to serve; sea salt flakes to serve

Published: April 5, 2022 at 4:30 PM

Save recipe

Serves 4

Easy

Total time: 30 mins

+ cooling

0 reviews

loading...

Get 5 months for £5 when you subscribe today

This classic Portuguese dessert is made simply with egg yolks, sugar, a touch of flour and rich olive oil – the quantities in this version by Nuno Mendes make quite a small cake but they can easily be doubled or tripled

Skip to ingredients

Alternatives

Complete the dish

Try this classic Portuguese dessert from Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes. Nuno says, "This is one of my favourite cakes from the Portuguese repertoire. My favourites are the gooey ones which use a higher ratio of egg yolk. Try pão de ló at any of classic pastelarias with the sign ‘fabrico próprio’ (own production) outside."

Lisbon-born Nuno Mendes’s latest culinary venture is Lisboeta, which means ‘a person from Lisbon’. Nuno is famous for his ground-breaking restaurant Viajante, and Lisboeta is a return to his roots where an all-day snack menu is a homage to ‘salgados’ (salty, savoury snacks) and ‘petiscos’ (little plates of this or that) culture. Both are most commonly eaten in the late afternoon accompanied by a cold beer or glass of vinho verde. Other dishes will be served family-style as they would be in the tascas of Portugal. @lisboeta.london

Nuno's recipe tip: "This is one of my favourite Portuguese desserts, which is made from just egg yolks, sugar, a touch of flour and a rich Portuguese olive oil. The quantities here make quite a small cake but they can easily be doubled or tripled."

Portuguese pão de ló cake recipe

Ingredients

Nutrition

80ml olive oil

plus extra for the tin
100g caster sugar
4 eggs

plus 1 yolk
20g plain flour
extra-virgin olive oil

to serve
sea salt flakes

to serve

Nutrition: per serving

kcal384
fat26.2g
saturates4.6g
carbs28.9g
sugars25g
fibre0.2g
protein7.9g
salt0.2g

Method

step 1

Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Oil and line a 20cm round baking tin with baking paper. Put the sugar, eggs and yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk for 15-20 minutes or until tripled in volume, light and fluffy.
step 2

Gently fold in the olive oil and flour, and pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 8 minutes or until the cake is just set but still a little gooey in the middle. Let it sit for 5-6 hours so that it collapses and sets, and the top forms a crust. Drizzle a generous glug of extra-virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt on top, then eat it at room temperature.

Check out more of our easy Portuguese-inspired recipes

Portuguese custard tarts on a cooling rack

Comments, questions and tips

Rate this recipe

What is your star rating out of 5?1 star out of 52 stars out of 53 stars out of 54 stars out of 55 stars out of 5

Choose the type of message you'd like to post

CommentQuestionTip

Overall rating