Olive Oil Cake

Olive Oil Cake

(adapted from “Rustic Italian Food” by Marc Vetri – we’ll remind you here about our cookbook obsession, and this new book is worth buying)

Olive Oil Cake is not a “showy” dessert and this cake is special in its simplicity: its charms are not obvious but once sampled this cake is hard to pass up. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

pinch of sea salt

3 eggs

2 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 ½ cups olive oil

1 ½ cups whole milk

grated zest of 3 oranges

confectioners sugar for dusting

Coat a 10 inch springform pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda an salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and granulated sugar until well blended.  Whisk in the oil, milk and orange zest.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until well blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake on the middle rack in the oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes.  The cake will be very moist.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove the springform sides and cool completely.  Dust with confectioners sugar.

Serves 10 to 12.  Or in our family: maybe 6.