Olive Oil Cake

I have been looking into healthier baked dessert options. I think cake hardly qualifies as health food, but I had read about olive oil cake and wanted to try my hand at it. Luckily I had seen this recipe at Jamie’s blog: Life’s A Feast. She uses some whole wheat pastry flour in the recipe, but I made it with all AP flour since I didn’t have any whole wheat pastry flour on hand. Jamie shares her beautiful writing and delectable recipes in her blog, definitely go check it out!

This olive oil cake is moist and delicious. I used a strongly flavored fruity/peppery olive oil that the boyfriend brought me from Algeria. Be warned, the cake will taste like olive oil and maple syrup, which is great if you like both. I suppose you could use a “light” olive oil which will have a subtle olive oil flavor if you wanted a more neutral tasting cake. And of course, olive oil in cake may not be your cup of butter, in which case feel free to substitute the 1/3 cup olive oil in the recipe with melted butter.

I also had some raspberries, and could not resist making a raspberry coulis to serve with the cake. Raspberries are healthy, right?! (Ok, let’s ignore the part about the sugar in the sauce) The tart flavor of the raspberries went well with the light and moist cake. Now that I have made my first olive oil cake, I can’t wait to make more. Do you have any olive oil baked good recipes to share? I may try to make an olive oil pound cake next!

Vanilla Cake with Olive Oil and Maple Syrup
Adapted from Peter Berley’s The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen via Life’s A Feast

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil or melted unsalted butter
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Oil a 9-inch cake pan and dust with flour.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, water, oil, vinegar and vanilla.
4. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together with a whisk until combined.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake is set in the center and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out into a wire rack to let completely cool.
6. Once the cake cooks, sift powdered sugar over it.

Raspberry Coulis

Ingredients:
2 pints raspberries
Juice and zest of ½ a lemon
¼ to ½ cup sugar (to your preference and depending on how tart your raspberries are)

Procedure:
1. In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, cook raspberries with sugar, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water until cooked through, they should fall apart. About 10-15 minutes.
2. Process in blender until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.