The Times featured this recipe mid-march- I remember reading it and thinking "ooh, that sounds interesting", immediately bookmarked it and as most bookmarks in my browser go, it went unread for a good two months (most of the time they are never re-visited). But when it was time to think of a great, portable dish to bring to a picnic two weeks ago, it popped back in my head. Genius! I've really gotta say, this is one of the easiest recipes for cakes I have ever come across. Even easier than banana bread, since you don't have to deal with yucky mushy bananas. And not to say that it's healthy per se, but it really does not use that much sugar, flour, nor any butter- all pluses in my book. I cannot stress how easy it transports, how great it is for picnics and lunches and tea times (because you know we all have tons of those), and really sounds a lot fancier than it is.
It was such a hit at the picnic, you can really taste the rich olive oil flavor, complemented by the nice orang-y lemon zest. Moreover the cake is UNbelievebly moist, like pound cake, but minus the pounds!!!! Anyway I've decided to make it again for a lunch date I have tomorrow with two girlfriends. I added one more orange and nuts to the recipe, as I thought they would be welcomed additions to the already flavorful recipe, and it turned out brilliantly (or at least, it looks that way). It's not exactly blood orange season, but I was able to find the bright little fruits at my local health/gourmet/overpriced food store near my house (at 79cents each. hmph.) I can't cut into it tonight but I PROMISE I will take pictures tomorrow.
without further ado, here is the recipe:
Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake
Prep time, about 30-45 min
Bake time, 50 min-1 hour
+cooling time
Butter for greasing the pan
4 blood oranges
1 cup sugar
greek yogurt (roughly 1/2 cup)
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts or almonds, optional.
Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan (9x5 inch preferred) with butter.
Grate the zest from 2 oranges and place in a large bowl with
sugar. Using your fingers, rub these two ingredients together until the orange zest is evenly distributed in the sugar.
Supreme 2 oranges, break or cut segments up into small pieces, about 1/4 inch in size.
Halve the other 2 oranges and squeeze their juices into a measuring cup. This will equal about 1/4 cup of juice. Add yogurt to the juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether and mix well. Pour this mixture into bowl with sugar and whisk well.
Whisk in 3 eggs, one at a time.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour (sifted), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gently whisk in dry ingredients into wet ones.
Switch to a spatula and fold in oil a little at a time. Fold in pieces of orange segments, then nuts, if you choose to add them.
Scrape batter into the pan, make sure batter is smooth and compact.
Bake cake for 50-60 min, until it is golden and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on rack (in pan) for about 5 minutes, then invert out of the pan and cool until room temperature.
EAT!!
** Like with all baking recipes, I really recommend sifting the flour. Especially if flour has been sitting in your pantry for longer than a few weeks, you'd be surprised to find how clumpy it can get. Since I'm not fancy enough to have a sifter, I just use a fine-meshed sieve and sift the flour about 1/2 cup at a time. Works perfectly.
**In case you don't know how to supreme an orange, or what that even means: Cut off the bottom and the top of your orange so the fruit is just barely exposed and you can sit it upright on a cutting board. With your knife, follow the curve of the fruit and cut away both the peel and the white pithy bitterness. Hold the now naked looking orange in your non-cutting hand, and with the knife (duh) cut the orange segments out of their connective membranes. ta-da!
**Also another tip- don't bother using gross extra virgin olive oil. It's really worth it to use the nicer stuff.
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