Cit­rus Olive Oil Cake

I won’t use the word we’re all think­ing of, obvi­ous­ly, but this cake real­ly is.  Sticky, juicy, “not dry.”  Deli­cious, in oth­er words.  I made this cake in a Bundt pan, for old-fash­ioned fun, but you could use two ordi­nary cake tins and pile them on top of anoth­er with glaze in the mid­dle, or with whipped cream, or you could use a 9x13 inch pan and cut the cake in squares to serve.

Cit­rus Olive Oil Cake

(serves about 16)

3 cups/330g plain flour

1 tbsp bak­ing powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 large eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups/330g gran­u­lat­ed sugar

1 cup/245g plain yogurt

3/4 cup/170ml extra vir­gin olive oil

fresh­ly grat­ed zest of 3 oranges or lemons

1 1/2 tsps vanil­la extract or the con­tents of one vanil­la pod

2 cups/110g confectioners/icing sugar

juice of 3 oranges or lemons

Set your oven to 350F/180C.

But­ter your cake pan and dust with flour.

In a large bowl, whisk togeth­er the flour, bak­ing pow­der, and salt.

In a stand­ing mix­er or with a hand mix­er, beat the egg yolks until they are pale and light, then add the sug­ar and mix well.  Add the yogurt and olive oil and mix until thor­ough­ly com­bined.  Add the orange zest and vanil­la and mix until just incor­po­rat­ed.  Add the flour mix­ture to the wet ingre­di­ents in two parts, beat­ing until just com­bined (this will take about 10 sec­onds).  Scrape down the bowl and beat again for five seconds.

In anoth­er large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Scoop half the egg whites into the bat­ter.  Using a rub­ber spat­u­la, fold them gen­tly togeth­er.  After about 30 sec­onds of fold­ing, add the sec­ond half of the egg whites and again, gen­tly fold until they are com­bined.  Do not rush the fold­ing process.

Pour the bat­ter into the pre­pared tin/s and bake for 40–50 min­utes, rotat­ing the cake halfway through.  The cake is done when it is stiff to the touch in the mid­dle, or a small knife insert­ed comes out clean.

While the cake cools, mix the con­fec­tion­ers sug­ar and juice.  If the glaze is too liq­uidy, add more sug­ar.  If it is too thick, add more juice.  The glaze should rest on top of the cake, not sink in com­plete­ly.  Pour the glaze over the cake.  If using a Bundt pan, unmold the cake first onto a serv­ing plate and allow the glaze to run over the sides.