Olive Oil Cake – Ladi Tourta

This weeks Food Network Chef’s Challenge hosted by I Blame My Mother is Cat Cora.  I’ve only seen her on the Iron Chef and she’s great to watch, but had no clue that he main style of cooking is Greek!  Greek food is not something I am very familiar with or like so much, so I had a bit of difficultly finding a recipe I wanted to try.  But I found this Olive Oil cake and thought it sounded great.

Verdict: I used 2 less ounces of oil per recommendation on the food network reviews and the cake wasn’t too oily but very Olive Oily flavored.  But paired with the citrus and crunch of almonds it was pleasing enough. Basically everyone in my family liked this cake more than I did.  I think if I make this cake next time I will use half olive oil half butter!

So let me show you how its made.

Ingredients: 3 large eggs, beaten, 2 cups granulated sugar, 12 ounces extra-virgin olive oil (suggest only using 8 oz), 10 ounces milk, 2 ounces orange liqueur, 2 ounces fresh orange juice, 3 teaspoons lemon zest, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 4 ounces blanched almonds, finely chopped, Powdered sugar, for garnish

Start off in your mixer (with the whisk attachment) pouring in your sugar and eggs

Milk

and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Then add your orange liqueur

*isn’t my shot glass so very festive?

and juice of one orange or 2 ounces orange juice

and 3 tsp lemon zest

Whisk until fully incorporated

Then in a separate bowl add your flour, baking soda, baking powder

and kosher salt, why kosher salt?  I haven’t a clue

Mix well and then sift, see this is why the kosher salt doesn’t make sense, because the granules are too big and don’t sift though the mesh!

So then just pour the unsifted salt back in and pour the dry into the wet ingredients and blend

Be sure to scrape down the sides, to get everything hiding in those corners

and then fold in your chopped almonds

Make sure and butter your baking dish

then pour in the batter, it will be very loose.

and bake at 350 for about an hour, I think I actually had to bake it about 1 hour and 15 minutes

The top will be very brown and slightly crunchy (the edges were my favorite part)

and the inside very moist and light

I think next time I make this cake I will use my cake muffin pans, so I get lots of edges!

Please be sure to check out the other Challenge participants here

Olive Oil Cake: Ladi Tourta

Recipe courtesy Cat Cora

Bottom of Form

Ingredients

3 large eggs, beaten

2 cups granulated sugar

12 ounces extra-virgin olive oil

10 ounces milk

2 ounces orange liqueur

2 ounces fresh orange juice

3 teaspoons lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 ounces blanched almonds, finely chopped

Powdered sugar, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10-inch cake pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, olive oil, milk, liqueur, orange juice, and lemon zest. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Whisk until well blended. Fold in the almonds.

Pour the mixture into the buttered cake pan. Bake for 1 hour. Place on a rack to cool. Run a knife around the edges and place it on a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.