Olive Oil Cake
I love Olive Oil Cake, but I’ve tested six recipes in the last two weeks and I don’t need to have this cake again anytime soon. I know I’ll reconsider, but not today. Olive oil cake has been a staple in my cake rotation for quite a while, usually when I need to contribute something to a table of baked goods. It’s a cake that’s easy to eat - a light citrus taste accompanied by a faint background flavor of extra virgin olive oil. It has a lovely, moist crumb that is somewhere between a chiffon cake and a pound cake, and it isn’t cloyingly sweet. It makes you think that maybe, as far as cakes go, it might even be healthy! My favorite part is the slight crunch of the top crust. Here’s the problem - I’ve jumped from recipe to recipe and don’t remember which was my favorite and why, and there is always the possibility that I’ve tinkered with or combined recipes. Thus began the 6 cake search….
If you’ve read my post about Grapefruit Campari Granita, you know how I feel about Gourmet Magazine, so I consulted the April 2006 issue, which also happens to be all about Italy - it’s a treasure. The olive oil cake recipe in that issue has 6 ingredients and relies on whipping 4 egg whites as the rising agent and gently folding them into the rest of the batter, much like a chiffon cake. I know I’ve made it before, so the combination of few ingredients and Gourmet as the source made me certain this was the one, but since it is made like a chiffon cake, it also tastes like a chiffon cake, which is not what I was looking for. It’s delicious in a light, airy, slightly citrus and even more slightly olive oil kind of way, but I wanted something less, well, slight.
Next I tried a recipe that used baking powder to help with the rise and milk to alternate with the flour when mixing. It instructed me to coat the oil-greased pan with sugar, which I remember thinking was a great idea. Maybe this was the one? Nope. This cake was also light and airy, although not as airy as the whipped egg white version, but it tasted and felt like a cake mix, and the olive oil and citrus was mostly lost.
There were a few others. I even revisited the whipped egg white version to be certain that the Gourmet recipe was not the one. I tried a recipe that uses only almond flour, although I have no recollection of making it that way. It was a little too dense, but I did enjoy how the almond flour enhanced the flavor of the olive oil and added moisture to the crumb. There was a recipe enhanced by a little booze of my choice, which I enjoy, but I really wanted the lemon to be the flavor that shone through. However...good boozy suggestions: Limoncello, Amaretto or Grand Marnier.
In the end I decided on a hybrid of all of them. It’s delicious, the crumb is moist but not spongy, and it lends itself well to being topped with a little powdered sugar, fruit or fruit puree, ice cream, whipped cream, maybe a drizzle of that booze, or no topping at all.
Ingredients
1 ¼ cups extra-virgin olive oil
¾ cup sugar (and more for the pan and the top of the cake)
2 cups cake flour
⅓ cup almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tbls grated lemon zest*
6 tbls fresh lemon juice*
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
*can substitute freshly squeezed orange juice and zest for the lemon - it’s also delicious
Preheat oven to 400°. Coat the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with oil. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and coat with more oil. Sprinkle pan with sugar and swirl around to coat the bottom and sides. Remove excess. Whisk cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix lemon juice and vanilla together in another bowl.
Using a stand mixer on high speed with the whisk attachment, beat eggs, lemon zest, and ¾ cup sugar until mixture is very light in color and thickened- about 6 minutes. (If using a hand mixer, this will take longer) While the mixer is still on high speed, slowly drizzle in 1¼ cups oil and beat until incorporated and thickened. Scrape the sides of the bowl and resume at low speed. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with lemon/vanilla mixture. Start and end with the dry ingredients. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir the batter to make sure everything from the bottom and sides of bowl is incorporated. Pour into prepared pan, smooth, and sprinkle with sugar to lightly coat the top.
Place cake in preheated oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350° (this step is helpful to create the initial rise in the cake). Bake for 35-45 minutes, checking at 30 minutes. The top should be golden, the center of the cake should be firm to the touch, and a tester should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake and remove ring from pan. Allow cake to cool completely on the rack.
It can be eaten as soon as it cools, but there is something about the flavor of an olive oil cake that deepens and gets better the next day. If you are patient, cover the cake with foil or plastic wrap and wait for tomorrow.
Several recipes suggest poking holes in the top of the cake with a toothpick and pouring a couple tablespoons of olive oil over the top to be absorbed before removing the ring from the pan. It’s delicious, and don’t worry about the extra oil making the cake gummy. It is absorbed completely and just enhances the olive oil flavor.
