52 Weeks of New: Orange Olive Oil Cake

One of my goals in trying a new recipe every week is to find, hopefully more often than not, ones that use what I have on hand. There’s nothing worse than finding a delicious-sounding recipe and then discovering you can’t make it because you have to run to the store for this special ingredient or that thing you rarely purchase.

A couple of months ago when I was at my little dog-sitting job, I caught a show on the Food Channel called $10 Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian. I hadn’t ever seen the show before (mainly because we don’t have cable), let alone heard of  it, and unfortunately haven’t been able to see it since, although it sounds  like a show that would be right up my alley. Anyway, the day I watched one of the things she made was an orange olive oil cake, which along with everything else she fixed, sounded delicious (and affordable).

Fast forward to earlier this week when I wanted to make a cake for not only our dessert but to have something to put in everyone’s lunch boxes the next day. This recipe popped into my head, and when I found the recipe online, I also found that I had everything on hand to make it!

The orange olive oil cake was a delicious success with the Losing It family, and I have already been asked to make it again . . . soon. It’s very moist, lightly flavored with orange, and the olive oil gives it body and a distinctive (and delicious) flavor. The only things I changed were to substitute whole wheat pastry flour for part of the all-purpose flour, and up the amount of orange juice called for from three tablespoons to four, and the zest from one tablespoon to two because the orange I used produced that much juice and zest! Online reviewers also mentioned, however, that without a little extra juice, the cake might be a little dry. I also ended up baking the cake a little longer than called for (about five minutes more, I think) as the middle was not set at the called-for time. I skipped using the confectioner’s sugar at the end.

ORANGE OLIVE OIL CAKE

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 3/4 cup unbleached, and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• juice and zest of 1 orange (3-4 TBSP juice; 1-2 TBSP zest)
• confectioner’s sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9″ round or a 9″x 9″ square baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together olive oil, eggs, vanilla, and orange juice. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and gradually mix in the olive oil mixture, adding the zest toward the end; do not over mix. Pour into greased pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the center is set and the cake is a deep golden color. Let the cake sit for 15 minutes, then dust with confectioner’s sugar if desired.

 

 

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