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!

Ricotta Plum Pie with Lavender and Honey

Sunday is farmer's market day in my neighborhood. The weather in D.C. has been unbelievably sunny, crisp, and gorgeous lately; and the vendors at the market are selling the last of their summer harvest. I took advantage of the last of this season's plums and also bought some amazing fresh whole milk ricotta cheese from Keswick Creamery.

I made up this recipe on the fly as an experiment. I wasn't sure if lavender and plums go together, nor have I ever made anything with lavender before. The result is an unusual combination that works well together. Fresh figs could easily be substituted for the plums.

In the end, next time I will make this pie just as is but without the lavender. If you are feeling adventurous though, I would definitely give the lavender a try!

P.S. One of these days I will post a detailed tutorial on how to make this pie crust. It's an amazing pie crust and is pretty easy to handle; another one of those reliable recipes that has been passed on in our family.



Ricotta Plum Pie with Lavender and Honey
Serves 8

Ingredients:

Filling:
1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 tsp. dried lavender
2 egg yolks
3 Tbs. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Fruit and Topping:
6 or 7 plums, sliced (8 slices per plum)
2 Tbs. white sugar
2 or 3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 or 3 Tbs. honey

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs. cold water


Directions:

With a fork, mix together flour, oil and salt until a crumbly mixture forms. Sprinkle cold water over mixture. Combine the water and flour/oil mixture just until barely incorporated. After the point where you add the water, mix as little as possible. The less you mix, the more flaky the crust will be. Form into a ball, you should be able to see white ribbons in the dough where the oil and water are immiscible (I just learned this word). Set aside.

Heat oven to 400F. To make the filling, place ricotta, egg yolk, honey and vanilla extract in a medium bowl and whisk until evenly combined. Add dried lavender and whisk again until well combined.

Now form the crust. To do this place plastic wrap flat down on a damp counter. Place the ball of pie dough in the middle and flatten a little. Place anther piece of plastic wrap over dough. With a rolling pin, roll out dough into a circle slightly larger than the pie pan. Place dough into pie pan; roll edges and pinch with fingers to make a ruffled edge. Spoon ricotta mixture onto the pie shell and even out with the back of a spoon or spatula.

Gently mix together sliced plums and white sugar, let sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Neatly arrange the plums on top of the filling in a circular pattern, or however you see fit. Drizzle honey and lemon juice over plums.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the crust is a light golden color. Let cool completely before serving. Goes well with a cup of tea or coffee!



UPDATE: Julie had a brilliant suggestion for next time: simmering the lavender in the honey and then straining it out so that there would be the lavender essence but not the lavender bits in the filling.

Lemon Ginger Cake

A dear friend of mine had a birthday recently, and there is little I love more than making a cake for someone, especially a friend who has seen me through a lot of life's ups and downs. She doesn't have a huge sweet tooth, and is known for passing up the dessert tray at a restaurant and opting for buffalo wings instead. I am not sure how it's possible that we are still great friends given this disparity of respective weaknesses, but we are. Truth is stranger than fiction, folks. That said, she actually liked this cake (or so she said).
(BTW- we are only letting her pretend she is still 27, don't tell her we know)

The cake itself is not terribly sweet, but very good. The frosting is quite tangy and sweet, and I will probably keep it up my sleeve as a trusty go-to frosting.

Lemon Ginger Cake

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbs. lemon zest
1 Tbs. fresh ginger, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest and ginger. Beat for one minute.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.

Divide batter between two round cake pans, don't forget to grease or spray the pans with cooking spray first. There will be batter left over which is great for making cupcakes (see cupcake photo at the end of this post). Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Cool completely at room temperature.

Lemon Ginger Frosting:

2 tsp. lemon zest
4 Tbs. melted butter
3-4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp. salt

Whisk together lemon zest, butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, lemon juice, ginger and salt until the mixture starts to stiffen. Add more powdered sugar until the frosting seems thick enough to stick to the cake.

After the cake has cooled completely, top one of the cake rounds with frosting. Place other cake round on top, and then frost the rest of the cake. I decorated mine with candied ginger and fruit jellies from Trader Joe's.


Here is a picture of the cupcakes. I took these to work, and there wasn't a crumb left after 11 AM.