I’m grasping for words here how to begin this post and how to describe this cake. I could just leave you with the recipe. I saw this cake on Sassy Radish and knew I wanted to make it. And, after roughly a couple of weeks, make it I did. It seems that olive oil cakes are making quite the buzz in the food world and I started to get interested in making one after seeing a recipe for one from the new cookbook Good to the Grain. (I’m still waiting to borrow a copy from the library.)
The cake is fairly uncomplicated, although I did change a few things – first and foremost making it gluten-free, and tweaking some of the ingredients because I did not have them on hand. More fairly, I hadn’t paid full attention to the ingredients list and found out, as I was following the recipe instructions, I was out of orange juice and didn’t have a lemon to zest! Perhaps ironically, there was orange juice last night but it was drunk by my little brother and, at that time, I wasn’t thinking of this cake so I didn’t think to save some.
I debated about using natural, fruit juice-sweetened tangerine pop that was in the fridge in place of the orange juice, but instead I grabbed the applesauce and in it went. Lemon extract was added instead of zest and I used the amount that felt right to me; I didn’t Google it.
I don’t know how it compares to it being made with orange juice, but I think the applesauce helped with making the cake moist as the orange juice would have. It’s a pleasantly flavoured cake, with subtle hints of olive but not on the verge of overwhelm. It isn’t a very sweet cake, either, so the mock honey glaze I made for it is perfect, giving it just enough of a sweet note to compliment or it could just be eaten on its own without the glaze.
Linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Gluten-Free Wednesdays.
Almond Olive Oil Cake
Adapted from Gina DePalma – pastry chef at Babbo via Serious Eats
Ingredients:
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup brown or white rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
3 fluid ounces honey
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
About 3/4 tsp. lemon extract
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
Method:
Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a 9-inch cake pan or springform pan with parchment paper. Mix the dry ingredients to blend. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs to break up the yolks and mix in the honey. Add the olive oil, whisking until it has thickened. Add the extracts and applesauce. Stir in the blended dry ingredients, mixing until you have a thick, emulsified batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating half way through to ensure even browning. Remove from oven and cool briefly in the pan before transferring cake to a wire rack, letting cool completely. Serve and drizzle slices with the cinnamon honey glaze (recipe follows). Enjoy!
Cinnamon Honey Glaze
Ingredients:
About 1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. oil
About 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp. coconut milk
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Method:
Cream the honey and oil together until starting to thicken and becoming slightly opaque. Add the ground cinnamon, coconut milk, and extracts, mixing after each addition. Make more accordingly or if necessary.
Oh, what a lovely cake, Zoe! I can only imagine the taste. I love baking with olive oil. It’s surprising and such an easy way to bake dairy free. Love your other ingredients, too, like honey. 😉
Shirley
Zoe, this cake looks great. We have a favorite Spanish Tapas place we used to always eat at (before going gf) that had the most amazing olive oil cake! We would go there just for the cake – one of hubby’s favorite desserts! Have not made one since going gluten free, though. Maybe it is time to surprise the hubby!
By the way, your recipes will be in the app by the end of this weekend! ;0)
Cheers!
Thanks, Kim! Looking forward to seeing my recipes in the app. 😉
Okay, this cake looks soooo good! I’m not a big cake fan, but the ingredients and the moist-look of it – yum! I bake mostly with olive oil, but use extra-light for more delicate flavors.
Funny, I would never think about an olive oil cake like this and yet it looks so light and moist and…oh yeah….YUMMY!!!!!
This sounds just lovely! I like your on-the-fly substitutions. Good job!
It looks delicious, and I love almond flavored desserts.
Oh my GOSH! Almond is my favorite flavor. I can’t eat sugar. This cake was MADE for me.
Can. Not. Wait. You’ll be seeing this on my blog, too! (Don’t worry – I always credit and link!)
I used your recipe as a base, but substituted the 1/2 cup applesauce for 1/2 cup of orange/lemon purée that I made by boiling the whole fruits in water.
I was looking for an opportunity to try this whole fruit method in a semi-sweet breakfast type cake.
I got that idea from here: http://orangette.blogspot.ca/2010/02/we-ate-this-cake.html
Incredible!
Thank you Zoe.
I also omitted the vanilla extract, because I wanted a clean citrus almond flavour. And the lemon extract, because I had a whole puréed lemon rind in there.
A fellow Zoe, hi! 🙂 Your version sounds fantastic, I love breakfast cakes so I’m glad it worked. I’d love to try your version sometime, I’ll keep it in mind.