Olive Oil Cake

Happy Easter!!!

This year my mom is hosting and I offered to bring dessert.  A friend of mine made this cake for a party a while ago and I absolutely loved it.  It's the perfect dessert for those who don't like their desserts too sweet.  Plus, being Easter I figured there would be enough chocolate and other sweets available and, knowing my family, there would likely be cupcakes or frosted cake too.

The recipe was quite simple. There are many versions of olive oil cakes online and this one includes orange and pine nuts.  My friend got this recipe from one of her Italian cookbooks, so I did a quick google search and found a few other blogs that noted this is from Made in Italy, a cookbook by TV personality David Rocco.

Torta All’Olio D’Oliva (Olive Oil Cake)
Source: Made in Italy by David Rocco
 (Yield: 1-9″ cake)

Ingredients:

• 1 large orange
• 5 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the cake pan
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9-inch springform cake pan with olive oil.
• Zest the orange and chop the zest into fine pieces and set aside. Juice half of the orange and strain into a bowl or measuring cup.
• Place the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and beat on a medium high speed until the mixture turns a creamy pale color. About 2 minutes.
• Lower the speed of the mixer and add the olive oil, orange juice and orange zest to the egg mixture. Continue mixing until everything is combined.
• Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold the flour into the mixture until fully incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites together with a pinch of salt in your mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the yolk and oil mixture until combined. Repeat with the remaining egg white. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan, smooth the top if necessary with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
• Sprinkle the top of the cake with pine nuts and sugar.
• Bake in the oven at 350F for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Cool the cake on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing the sides of the pan. The cake should cool for about an hour before you cut into it.

Recipe notes: If you’re worried about your cake browning too quickly, you can tent the cake pan with a piece of tin foil part way through the cooking process. The sides do fall slightly after the cake has cooled a bit.