Huile d'Olive

Olive oil. Where to start? For me olive oil is like garlic... no meal is complete without it. It's like liquid gold; good for the skin, hair, nails, insides.
It's the best dressing around, no need for bottled Kraft crap. Chewy bread dipped in really good extra virgin olive oil is probably one of the best snacks in the world. And a simple sauce made with lots of olive oil, a few chilli flakes, plenty of garlic, a smidge of lemon zest and a bit of parsley is the most amazing thing to have with warm spaghetti.

I've seen so many recipes for olive oil cake and have been wanting to make it for ages, it appeals to me so much. Every cake recipe needs a fat - and this is most commonly butter, but for this recipe olive oil is used instead. The result is a perfectly moist cake, soft, light cake with a lovely aroma of fruity extra virgin olive oil. You can even trick yourself into thinking it's good for you because technically there's no butter involved and olive oil really is a superfood after all...

Olive Oil Cake
(recipe by Mark Hix)

300g caster sugar
3 eggs
300g plain white flour sifted with 1tbsp baking powder
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
120ml extra-virgin olive oil
100ml milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy - in a food mixer if you prefer. Add the juice and zest of the orange and the lemon zest and then stir in the olive oil and milk. Gently fold in the flour and transfer to a lightly greased (you can use olive oil if you wish) round tin about 20-24 cms in diameter (you can use a square or a loaf tin of similar size).

Bake for 40-45 minutes. You can test by inserting a skewer or something similar and it should come out clean. Leave to cool in the tin then turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. Eat for tea or as a dessert with mascarpone, whipped cream, crème fraîche or ice cream, and raspberries.

*And on an entirely different note...
I spend a lot of money/time online shopping. I have decided this needs to stop, since Europe is calling me. So instead, I have been wasting a lot of time on this website...so much fun, but so little reward. You can make collages of things you want to buy... or in my case, not buy. Ahh if money were no object! Santa, take note: