plum and olive oil cake

plum and olive oil cake

26 Jan 2024

It's stone fruit season here, so I'm baking with them every chance I can get. I spied blood plums in the fruit shop and came home to make plum cake, but which recipe to use?

I decided to adapt a Silvia Colocca recipe, using plums instead of apricots. The recipe is very easy to put together a makes a lovely tender cake. Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 slices. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Plum and olive oil cake 
6-8 plums, deseeded and quartered
150g caster sugar, reserve 1 tbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 ml oil (I used a combination of extra virgin olive and canola oil)
1⅓ cups (200 g) self-raising flour   
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
⅓ cup milk
¼ cup flaked almonds, for sprinkling

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line a 20 cm square tin with baking paper.

Sprinkle the sliced plums with a tbs of caster sugar and set to one side. In a medium bowl, using a balloon whisk combine the beaten eggs with the remaining sugar, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Slowly drizzle in the oil and whisk until well combined. 

Sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and salt into a small bowl. Add to the egg mixture in batches alternating with the milk and whisk to form a smooth loose batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and arrange the plum slices on top any way you like because they will sink to the bottom of the cake as it cooks. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 45 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before cutting into 8 slices.

 

Easy to make and even easier to eat.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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nectarine olive oil cake

nectarine olive oil cake

9 Dec 2019

Nectarines have made their way into the fruit shop as have summer berries, watermelon and mangoes. I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel. With a bag of ripe nectarines in the fridge, I decided to make a nectarine version of Silvia Colloca's apricot cake.



This is a quick and easy to make cake. When I made the apricot cake I wrote a few notes in the margin of recipe book. Based on those notes I reduced both the quantity of sugar and milk in the cake batter and altered the method just a little. 



My olive oil was very fruity so I diluted it a little with some canola oil. As you can see even after reducing the quantity of milk, the batter was still very liquid.




Here's the recipe for you which makes an 8 inch square cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.



Nectarine and olive oil cake – makes 8 slices
Ingredients
3 large nectarines cut into eights
2/3 cup caster sugar, reserve 1 tbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1tsp vanilla extract
100 ml oil (I used a combination of extra virgin olive and canola oil)
1⅓ cups (200 g) self-raising flour   
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
⅓ cup milk
¼ cup flaked almonds, for sprinkling

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20 cm square tin with baking paper.

Sprinkle the sliced nectarines with the tbs of caster sugar and set to one side. In a medium bowl, using a balloon whisk combine the beaten eggs with the remaining sugar, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Slowly drizzle in the oil and whisk until well combined.

Sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and salt into a small bowl. Add to the egg mixture in batches alternating with the milk and whisk to form a smooth loose batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and arrange the nectarine slices on top any way you like. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 45 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before cutting into 8 slices.



I took the cake into work and it disappeared in a flash, which is always a good sign. When plums are in season I think I'll make another version using browned butter in the batter instead of olive oil. Watch this space.

I'll be back again next week with 5 offerings for Xmas week 2019. I hope you like what I've made for you.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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apricot and olive oil cake

apricot and olive oil cake

11 Jan 2016

Hi every-one. I'm back! Did you miss me? I've been back at work for a week now and as I'm not working in my normal area I feel a bit like a fish out of water. I'm also pretty tired as the work is heavy and most nights I'm fast asleep by 8.00 p.m. I wanted to make something to share with you but I knew it had to be quick, simple to make and delicious.




With apricots in season I looked through my cookbooks to find something to bake. Last year I bought the book 'Made in Italy' by Silvia Colloca but until now I've not had time to make anything from the book. I watched the companion tv series and I remember Silvia making an apricot cake that was mixed in a saucepan.



I found the recipe in the book and here it is, Silvia Colloca's recipe for Apricot and olive oil cake - serves 8

Ingredients
170g caster sugar
230ml milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
100ml extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons mistrà or sambuca (optional; see note)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1⅓ cups self-raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
7-8 apricots, cut in half
flaked almonds, for sprinkling
fresh ricotta and honey, to serve (optional)

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C (160C fan-forced). Grease and flour a 21cm square or 27 x 21cm rectangular cake tin (or line it with baking paper).

Place the sugar, milk and lemon zest in a medium saucepan over low heat and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sugar has dissolved. Do not let the milk come to the boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla seeds, olive oil and liqueur (if using), then let the mixture cool for 5-10 minutes.

Add the beaten eggs, flour and bicarbonate of soda and whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and arrange the apricot halves on top any way you like. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 30-35 minutes or until pale golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before cutting. Serve just as it is or with honey-drizzled ricotta.



Notes: For an alcohol-free version, replace the liqueur with milk. If using very small apricots, layer quarters on top of each other so that they won't completely sink into the batter as it cooks.





The cake is extremely moist and tastes delicious but I think it could do with a little less liquid. My apricots were small so I made 2 layers of fruit as Silvia suggested, otherwise all the fruit would have sunk to the bottom of the tin. As the apricot season is so short here and the cake is so simple to put together, I'll make it again with either plums or nectarines as and play around with the quantity of liquid.



P. S I just bought a new oven! It means I won't have to use a dining room chair to keep the oven door shut with any longer. I'm also in the process of arranging a trip to Iceland in the middle of the year so I've been busy.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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