Mediterranean Olive Oil Cake - 2

This could be the first of a couple variations on my original recipe in the most recent post below.

Nothing changes, from this recipe to the original, in the bowl of dry ingredients. In the egg-oil bowl, follow it until you get to the extracts. Omit the almond and vanilla, instead, substitute:

1/2-1t lemon extract

Then add:

1T fresh squeezed lemon juice

zest of one lemon

1 Cutie mandarin, finely chopped

Use the whole mandarin. Cut the stem and center white pithy parts away with a very sharp knife, then, finely chop the entire thing, peel and all.

Mix as directed in the original recipe. Prepare your 8" or 9" round or square pan by oiling it with EVOO and sugaring it. This gives a nicer texture to the crust than flouring. You could use pure cane sugar, coconut sugar or turbinado - which is what I used. The bigger crystals have the best crunch factor. Sprinkle the top with some spiced turbinado sugar also it you'd like.

Yesterday I stopped at a wonderful restaurant supply store here in Duluth, at 218 E. Superior Street. The Minnesota Foodservice Company. What a treasure trove for any foodie!! I bought my first springform pan - ever! At my age!! As you can see, within my learning curve, I wasn't trusting it completely since a springform pan is actually a ring with a removable bottom. I put it on a baking sheet before filling, just-in-case the cake batter tried to leak out, which it actually did, leaving a very browned thin 'cookie' attaching the pan to the baking sheet. I'm not sure about this pan. Next time I'll add parchment paper before I oil and sugar it.

Bake in your preheated, 350° oven. I baked this 45 minutes, then turned off the oven leaving the cake inside with the oven door cracked a couple inches for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a rack for at least half an hour before loosening the edges and transferring it to a serving plate. Cut into 8 big pieces or go smaller for 12 servings, 9 in a square pan.

This turned out so well and ended up at my Bible study this morning. I'm thinking this recipe might show up again as a Cinnamon-Cardamom Walnut version. . .Lin

edit: I forgot the glaze recipe: 2/3c powdered sugar, 1T EVOO and 1-3T lemon juice - however much you need to get it to a thick drizzle.

Lemon-Orange Pound Cake

1c (2 sticks) soft butter

2c organic cane sugar

⅓-½c fresh lemon juice

zest from 1 lemon and 1 orange

2t baking powder

2c all purpose flour

5 lg. whole eggs

Beat the butter and sugar together well with your mixer.  Slowly at first, then at high speed, in a large bowl.  After several minutes, when it's fluffy, add the zest and juice and again, beat this mixture well.  Whisk the baking powder and flour together well, in a medium bowl.  Add spoonfuls of this alternately with the eggs, one at a time, just until well combined, but not over mixed.

Pour into an angel food cake pan, or bundt pan, that's been greased and floured.*  You might also want to cut a piece of parchment paper to exactly fit the bottom of the pan, if the one you're using has a flat bottom.  I didn't do this and the bottom did stick.  Bake at 325° for 45-55 minutes.  Let cool completely before removing from the pan.  After about 10 minutes you can loosen the edges with a kitchen knife if that works okay with your pan.

After another half hour or so, shake in the pan to be sure everything's unstuck.  If baked in an angel food pan, invert the cake onto one hand then flip it right-side up, onto a plate.  If your bundt pan is intricately grooved, just invert the open part of the cake directly onto a plate.

Dust the top with powdered sugar, make a glaze, *or you could just sprinkle it with flavored or plain sugar before baking.  I didn't have powdered sugar, but almost experimented with the juice of half an orange, butter and coconut sugar.  I was going to get that bubbling then cooled enough to pour over, to glaze the cake before serving.   Changed to an easier option though, as you can see.  Well. . .this didn't turn out as beautiful, blond, tall or fluffy as I had hoped, but it's really good!

Be creative!  Remember, I'm not a baker!
Sometimes it's fun to jump out of our comfort zone a bit and try something new. . .Lin

Coffee Pound Cake

Many, MANY years ago, I was 21, newly married and a brand-new resident of north central Wisconsin with my husband, my daughter, who was a year old, and pregnant with my son.  We had just relocated from the Chicago suburbs.  This was about the time I started to really love cooking and baking.  It was a long slow process, but that's when and where it all began.  The little family-owned grocery store where I shopped, Reeve's Foodlane, often had big, free (very important when you're $truggling) recipe cards from Roundy's that were fascinating to me.  There was a ground beef, rice and green bean casserole that my little family particularly loved.  I might still have that somewhere!

After one shopping trip, I was making breakfast and noticed, inside the yellow styrofoam egg carton, a recipe for Golden Pound Cake.  My artistic daughter, later sort of carved-drew a smiley face in the corner of the recipe, which is still visible on the yellow styrofoam.  This has been my basic go-to for a recipe idea when I want a pound-cake-type dessert.  I've made both subtle and huge changes to it over the years, depending on the desired results.

Today I had Key Lime Pound Cake on my mind, so I put the old yellow styrofoam recipe 'card' on the counter.  Meanwhile, I had my Community Bible Study this morning, then ran some errands in town.  Once I got home, it was clean-the-kitchen-time before baking and cooking.  I put my French coffee press aside, but kept looking at it.  Then it occurred to me. . .not lime pound cake. . .Coffee Pound Cake!  So, my modification of the recipe for today changed 1c of milk to 1/2c VERY strong coffee and 1/2c half & half.  I had some really good vanilla, but the 2t of lemon juice was replaced by a little more coffee.  I also added the cinnamon and cardamom.  Instead of just white sugar, I used 1c light brown and the rest pure organic cane sugar.  I'm also trying a new technique. . .Instead of buttering and flouring the bundt pan, I buttered and sugared it!  I've been told that adds an interesting little crispy brownness to the edges.  Okay, enough talk, time to bake!!

2 sticks butter

1c light brown sugar

1-1/2c white sugar

4 eggs

2t pure vanilla

1/2c very strong coffee

1/2c half and half

3c unbleached-organic flour

1t baking powder

1/2t Himalayan pink salt

1T organic cinnamon

1/2t cardamom 

Preheat your oven to 300° and adjust the oven racks so the top one is in the middle of the oven.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the first 5 ingredients together.  In a medium size bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients to blend.  Alternating between the dry and the liquids, add these to the large bowl.  Beat until all is blended well.  The batter will be very thick.  Spoon into the buttered and sugared bundt pan.  This cake bakes long and slow.  The original recipe says 1-1/2 hours.  Check toward the end to see how it's doing.  Continue to bake until the cake is lightly browned on edges and the top is firm.  Check with a toothpick.  Place pan on cooling rack.  Let stand until pan can be touched and is barely warm.  Turn the cake out from the pan onto a cake plate.  Serve as is or drizzle with a cream cheese or coffee glaze. . .Lin