Orange Olive Oil Cake

Yield: 1-9 inch round cake

This recipe for olive oil cake is so easy and so good that I wouldn’t be surprised if it became a standard in your recipe repertoire. The end product gives you a lovely moist crumb and crispy top. Serve it as an everyday snack or tart it up for that special occasion with a mascarpone butter cream.

Want to add your own your own touches? Try it with lemon juice and zest instead of orange; then add limoncello for a little extra special treat. Maybe you prefer to add almonds and almond extract? Go for it! Turn it into muffins for a breakfast treat on the run or like banana bread, use a bread pan.  

If you’re going with the orange or lemon theme, deepen the flavour by using a little orange or lemon oil extract. Another of my favourite methods to boost the citrus flavour is to substitute half of the olive oil with La Masrojana orange or lemon olive oil. The flavour of this oil is delicate yet intense and rather than being infused, the orange is pressed together with the olives at a low temperature.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar (you can use a little less sugar if you choose)
• 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons dried orange peel (optional)
• 1 ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¼ cup 35% cream
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ½ tablespoon grated orange zest (use more or less as you choose)
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• ¼ cup Grand Marnier

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350° F.
2. Oil, butter, or spray a 9-inch spring form cake pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.  Lining the pan with parchment paper is the easiest way to release the cake, but if you don’t have parchment paper, oil butter or spray the pan and dust with flour.
3. In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, dried orange peel, orange zest, baking soda and powder util combined.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil, milk, cream, eggs, orange juice and Grand Marnier. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the top is deep golden and a cake tester comes out clean, approximately 1.5 hours. NOTE: Test the cake at about 50 minutes and keep an eye on it until the tester comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and transfer the cake to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes, remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.