Posts tagged ‘olive oil cake’

Apr 2

Tiger Cake – Alice Medrich

I saw this cake yesterday on Food52, first of all I am a sucker for a marble cake always have been and then when I saw that it is made with olive oil I knew I had to make it. A cake made with oil would be incredibly moist and have a very tender crumb, both are requisites for a really good cake, IMHO. I also love recipes by Alice Medrich, she knows a thing or two about baking. With a little spare time today I undertook this cake, now I have made marble cakes before and you usually drag a butter knife around the batter to give the marble effect, well you don’t do that with this cake. You pour your batters separately, layering them and just bake it like that. I was a little skeptical. I had to force myself not to get the knife and start swirling,

Ready to bake

Tiger Cake – Alice Medrich

Makes 1 cake in a 10-to-12 cup tube pan
1/2 cup (25 grams) natural cocoa powder (non-alkalized, non-Dutch processed)
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1/3 cup water
3 cups (385 grams) all-purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
5 cold eggs
1 cup cold milk
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or spray a 10-to-12 cup tube pan with oil spray and dust it with flour.
In a medium large bowl, whisk the cocoa, sugar, and water until well blended.
In another medium large bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder thoroughly and sift onto a piece of wax paper. Set aside.
In a the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, and pepper until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue to beat until the mixture is thick and pale, 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and add one-third of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until blended. Stop the mixer and add half of the milk. Beat just until it is blended. Repeat with another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour.
Add three cups of the batter to the cocoa mixture and stir until blended. Pour one-third of the plain batter into the prepared pan and top with one third of the chocolate batter. Repeat with the remaining batters. Don’t worry about marbling the batters—that happens during the baking.
Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Set the pan on a rack to cool. Slide a skewer around the tube and a thin metal spatula (or knife) around the sides of the pan. Lift the tube and slide the spatula under the cake to detach it from the pan bottom. Transfer the cake to a serving platter. The cake keeps for several days, at room temperature, under a dome or wrapped in plastic.

Just out of the oven

Came out of the pan like a dream

As you can see from the photo’s below, it swirled nicely on it’s own. I like the cake. It has good crumb, baked nicely. I think it would be great with a chocolate glaze drizzled on top or with some ice cream.
The next time I will add more salt, like at least 1/2 tsp, and maybe some orange zest. Note: I forgot to add the white pepper.

So pretty

Tiger Cake

Jan 27

52 Comments

Citrus Semolina Olive Oil Cake

I went to brunch with a friend and she said I had to taste a piece of this lovely citrusy rustic cake. One bite and I knew I had to try to recreate it. I thought it might be a semolina olive oil cake infused with citrus (It was an Italian Restaurant, Saraghina in Bed Stuy Brooklyn). I researched some recipes and came up with this recipe that I adapted from Epicurious. They made it in a 9″ springform pan ( I thought I had one but didn’t) so I decided to use a loaf pan. Their recipe also had candied orange slices on top which I decided not to do but instead rely on the juice and zest of the citrus to provide the citrus flavor. The cake is very moist and sweet, while the cake is hot you poke small holes with a thin skewer all over the cake and pour the warm syrup all over it, let it soak in and then pour some more. I am including the recipe with the original proportion of sugar in the cake but next time I make it I am going to reduce the sugar by half because the syrup really sweetens the cake. The pan is oiled with olive oil and the cake develops a lovely almost crisp exterior on the bottom and sides of the cake.

Citrus Semolina Olive Oil Cake

Makes 1 9 inch loaf or round cake

Syrup:

2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup orange or tangerine juice ( freshly squeezed)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of small orange or tangerine and zest of a lemon

Place all ingredients in saucepan, bring to a boil on high heat, reduce to medium high and boil for 8-10 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved.

Cake:

1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for pan

1/2 cup sugar divided (1/4 c will go in batter and 1/4 c in egg whites)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup semolina flour (cornmeal can be subbed if you don’t have semolina)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3 large eggs separated

2/3 cup plain yogurt

1/2 tsp kosher salt

zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush baking pan with olive oil, I recommend brushing pan with olive oil and line the bottom with parchment paper brush the parchment with oil as well. Whisk dry ingredients and set aside. Beat egg whites until frothy and add the 1/4 c sugar a tbs at a time until soft peaks form. Using electric mixer beat olive oil and 1/4 c sugar, add the egg yolks one at a time beating well with each addition. Add yogurt, zest, vanilla beat only until combined and add the dry ingredients beating just until combined. Fold in the egg whites and pour into prepared pan, smooth the top and bake 45-50 minutes until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, Remove from oven and while cake is still hot poke holes using toothpick or skewer all over the cake. Slowly drizzle 1/4 cup of the syrup on the cake and when it is absorbed another 1/4 cup of syrup is drizzled over the cake. Let it cool in the pan, to remove run knife or offset spatula around the edges to release and invert onto serving pan. I cut some parchment that fit into the bottom of the pan, that helped with the release.