Olive oil vs vegetable oil in baking
Both are liquid fats that cannot be creamed. The only differences that matter in a batter are flavour and price, and one of them is not what people expect.
The short answer
Structurally interchangeable. Neither holds air, so both give their tenderness and moisture by coating flour and by staying liquid at eating temperature. The decision is about flavour: a strong extra virgin olive oil is assertive and will be tasted, a light olive oil or a refined vegetable oil will not. Smoke point is largely irrelevant at baking temperatures inside a batter.
Where they differ
| Dimension | First | Second |
|---|---|---|
| Creaming | Impossible. All the gas must come from a chemical leavener or from egg. | Impossible, for the same reason. |
| Flavour | From assertive to nearly neutral, depending on the grade. | Neutral. |
| Effect on crumb | Moist, tender, and moister for longer than a butter cake. | The same. |
| Smoke point | Lower for extra virgin, and effectively irrelevant inside a batter that never exceeds boiling point. | Higher, and equally irrelevant here. |
| Where the flavour is wanted | Olive oil cakes, focaccia, savoury bakes. | Anywhere the fat should be invisible. |
Differences that do not matter
These are real distinctions that are unlikely to change your decision. They are listed so you can stop thinking about them rather than left out so the comparison looks decisive.
- Cost. Higher. Lower.
The smoke point argument, and why it usually does not apply
Smoke point matters when a fat is heated directly to a high temperature — frying, roasting, searing. Inside a cake batter the fat is dispersed through a wet mixture, and the interior of a baking cake stays close to the boiling point of water until it is nearly done.
So an extra virgin olive oil in a cake is not being taken anywhere near its smoke point, and the common warning against using it for baking is imported from a different kind of cooking.
Where it does apply is a very hot bake with exposed oil — a focaccia surface at a high oven temperature — and even there the practical consequence is flavour change rather than damage.
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