Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Chips

I have been wanting to make this cake for a while now, it just sounds so interesting. Olive oil in a cake? One time when I was in high school a friend of mine and I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies but we didn't have any regular vegetable or canola oil. We did have olive oil however, so we used that instead. Needless to say the cookies turned out....interesting. I tried one bite and couldn't bring myself to eat anymore (ick!). For some reason, olive oil works very well in this cake and is the star ingredient along with the lemon. The recipe is adapted from Gourmet magazine. It is a very rustic, light, and airy cake; just barely sweet enough to be considered dessert.



Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Chips
serves 8

Ingredients:
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 cup flour (use cake flour if you have it)
5 egg yolks
4 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1 1/2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F, making sure the rack is in the middle position of the oven. Grease a 9 inch spring form pan, or a 9 cake inch cake pan.

Whisk together lemon zest, salt and flour. Set aside.

Beat together egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a large bowl until thick and pale, about three minutes. Drizzle in olive oil and lemon juice while slowly stirring just until combined, the mixture will appear to be slightly separated. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture just until combined (do not beat).

Beat egg whites in a large bowl until foamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar, a little at a time, and beat until mixture just begins to hold soft peaks.

Gently fold in one third of whites into yolk mixture. Then fold in rest of egg whites and chocolate chips very gently.

Pour batter into greased pan and gently rap against the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar. Bake 45 minutes or until puffed and golden and a knife or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for about 10 minutes, then remove. Cool cake to room temperature. At this point you can top the cake however you like- powdered sugar, berries, lemon curd, frosting, or leave it plain. I chose to spread some lemon curd I had from Trader Joe's and then sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

Enjoy with tea, as breakfast, snack, or dessert!