Sunday, March 07, 2010

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake



I found this recipe last winter and saved it until it was blood orange season again. A fat lot of good that did me, because apparently the grocery stores in my neighbourhood can’t be bothered to carry decent blood oranges. Take a look at the close-up in the second picture: see how the top of the orange in the foreground is ever-so-slightly darker than the rest? According to the produce manager, whom I spoke to a few days later, that’s the blood part (he apparently had no idea what I was talking about when I spoke of flesh that was entirely red). Now compare that to regular blood oranges and you’ll understand why I’m disappointed by these. I’m sure I could have gotten some at either Jean Talon Market or Atwater Market, but by the time I realized I’d been had, I was already in the midst of cake preparation and I didn’t want to abort the project.




The cake itself was absolutely delicious, though, really moist and tasty. So I’m sure it works fine with regular oranges too. I hardly tasted the olive oil in it.

3 blood oranges
1 cup granulated sugar
plain yogurt (about ½ cup; see below)
3 large eggs
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup olive oil

Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and set aside.

Grate zest from 2 blood oranges and place in a bowl with granulated sugar. Mix well with a whisk.



Cut 2 oranges into segments (remove the skin first) and chop into ¼-inch pieces.

Juice the remaining orange and combine with yogurt to make it 2/3 cup of orange-yogurt liquid.

Mix orange-yogurt liquid and orange zest scented granulated sugar in a large bowl.



Whisk in 3 large eggs until well combined.




Whisk in dry ingredients to wet ingredients.



Fold in olive oil a little at a time using a spatula. Lastly fold in chopped orange pieces.




Pour in prepared pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You seem to like those olive oil loaf cake variations. I have to admit, though, that this one looks very tasty (along with the matcha one from a while back).
Did you ever try Anna Olson's Earl Gray loaf cake? We found it quite yummy the one time we made it, but have since forgotten to ever make it again.

Amélie said...

I have actually bookmarked an Earl Grey loaf cake recipe that I want to try, but I forget whose recipe it is. I was wondering whether to make that or to stick to my tried-and-true Earl Grey cookies - but I do have a soft spot for these loaf cakes.

I might just make both, since we have quite a large supply of tea that we are not interested in moving to another house. For two people who don't drink tea, the Engineer and I have quite the selection!

Anonymous said...

You can always give any extras to me!
Maybe The Actor will come by and drink some for you.
Plus I like the new picture of yourself.

Amélie said...

I might just take you up on that. As it is, the Actor is the one who drinks our tea most often, and he doesn't even live in Montreal!

Thanks for the comment about the picture, I'm happy about how it turned out too. Notice how I did use my thumb after all? :)