Sweet & Savory: Olive Oil Cake
Sweet & Savory is a new monthly blog series where we explore adventures in baking, cooking, and the rapidly evolving food landscape. This month’s blog is written by Category Manager, Stevie Wallace.
Remember in the fall of 2019 when time spent in the kitchen was just the food space in your house, before it became your second bedroom? The one where you spent (and let’s face it, probably still spend) hours a day standing in front of your open fridge shoveling snacks into your mouth to pass the time? When we were all quarantined in our homes for quite a while? The boredom of it all?
Enter everyone’s newest freshman hobby: baking. All those Instagram posts of jars of sourdough starters, sheet pans of cookies, tins of cakes – everyone found something that brought them joy at every skill level. But, like a lot of folx, I wanted something fast and simple that I could make without having to leave my house or wait for <insert delivery service here> to bring me chocolate chips.
So! Let’s talk snack cakes. Let’s talk about the most humble of all snack cakes: the Olive Oil Cake.
Y’all, whoever first thought of this was onto something with this delightfully rich and fluffy treat. Tradition calls for polenta, citrus zests, and shaved almonds to bring this cake together, but there’s such a wide world of customization: figs, crystal sugars, fennel seeds, ginger, rye flakes… you can stick ANYTHING you want into this standard recipe and call it a delicious day. These cakes have never lasted more than 48 hours in my home (which is a self-proclaimed Pie Household™ since forever) so that should give an inkling of how addicting this cake really is. And more than likely you’ve already got everything sitting around your house! And it’s easy: no stand mixer required! And it’s fast: 45 minutes from mixing bowl to your mouth!
So let’s get to it. Don’t be afraid to take liberty with your flavors and get experimental y’all, because this little one’s the perfect launch pad to get your creativity on.
Olive Oil Cake
Adapted from Stella Parks, Serious Eats
Tools:
· One 8x3 cake pan, or similar
· Whisk, spatula
· Wire rack
o Optional tools (but highly recommended):
§ Parchment paper
§ Sifter
§ Citrus zester
Ingredients:
· 5 ¼ oz / 150g sugar
· ½ tspn baking soda
· ½ tspn baking powder
· ¼ tspn kosher salt
· 2 tspn grated lemon zest
· 1 tspn grated orange zest
· 5 oz / 150g great quality olive oil (the more robust and less virgin the better)
· 4 oz / 110g full fat buttermilk (fun tip, if you don’t have buttermilk then yogurt will do the trick)
· 1 large egg, straight from the fridge
· ¾ tspn anise extract (my personal favorite, but you can use any flavor you like)
· 5 ¾ oz / 165g cake flour, spooned and sifted (you can use any flour you’d like here and skip the sifting if you need to)
Directions:
1. Adjust your oven rack to a lower-middle position and preheat to 350°F (180°C). Oil your cake pan and line with parchment if using, oiling the parchment again. Set aside.
2. Whisk sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl for 1 minute: make sure you go the full minute or you’ll be sure to have pockets of powder and flour. Seems longer than necessary I know, but trust me on this one.
3. Add the lemon zest, olive oil, buttermilk, egg, and anise extract and wshik vigorously until batter looks smooth and well emulsified. Sift in cake flour and whisk just until well combined. Scrape into prepared pan. Bake until cake is firm but your finger can still leave an impression in the puffy crust, about 30 minutes. A toothpick or butter knife should come out with a few crumbs.
4. Allow the cake to cool for 10-ish minutes, then flip it out of the pan onto a wire rack to keep cooling, or just eat it! (Optionally you can add toppings to it if you’d like: powdered sugar, fresh fruit, whatever you like. I personally enjoy a lemon glaze and some sparkly sugar on mine.)