Olivver Extra Delish Olive Oil Cake

There’s something impossibly elegant and simple about a moist, aromatic extra virgin olive oil cake - besides being yet further proof that you can use healthier premium EVOO as a substitute for just about every edible fat in your kitchen.

Even better, this olive oil cake can be whisked up in two shakes of a lamb’s tail - and nudged in slightly different directions depending on which EVOO you choose. (Crista, a friend of Olivver, makes this all the time and swears by it - that’s her elegant hand in the photo using flowers to pattern out the icing sugar topping.)

Try with a rich, full-bodied peranzana from Italy like our Bio-Orto Peranzana Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil… or a fruity EVOO like the Finca la Torre Arbequina Bio-Dynamic.

Remember, the better the EVOO, the tastier the cake!

METHOD

170 gms flour
150g sugar plain or lightly toasted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Generous pinch of salt
3/4 cup premium extra-virgin olive oil (we used Rincón de la Subbética’s buttery Organic Hojiblanca - shown below)
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (or preserved lemon but leave out the salt)
1/2 cup buttermilk (or Greek yoghurt)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon orange flower water 

Fire up oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan-forced). 

Line out your cake tin with greased baking paper.
Whisk the sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl for a couple of minutes.
Add lemon zest, olive oil, buttermilk, egg, and orange flower water and whisk into a smooth batter.
Sift in cake flour and whisk just until smooth again.
Put into the tin & bake for 30 to 35 mins. (You can test done-ness with a toothpick.)  

Serve and watch it vanish in a heartbeat.