BEST Orange Olive Oil & Almond Cake

It's winter. Time for those wonderful citrus fruits (since nothing else is growing).

And yes, here is another citrus cake made with olive oil, I am always on the quest for the best one.

Well, after all these years of searching, I think I have finally found the winner.

The original recipe is from The Rose Bakery cookbook (where that gorgeous Pistachio Cake is from) and so far, all of their baked goods have been special.

Molly from Orangette made this, but reduced the amount of eggs and oranges, so I followed her lead. I only had clementines in the fridge, so that is what I used and they were just fine.

This turned out a super moist cake with almost a marmalade flavor.
Molly suggests toasting your almonds till almost brown to give a nice fragrance and beautiful brown flecks. She was right.

I suggest you start the cake the day before serving it. In the morning, boil your citrus fruits (I know, weird), and toast and chop the nuts, so all you have to do before baking is mix up the ingredients and put in the oven.

My cake started to get too dark after 40 minutes, so I covered it loosely with foil to save the day. It's ok if it is dark, since you are going to cover the top with some nice powdered sugar anyway.

This is REALLY DELICIOUS and one of those gorgeous cakes that I love to bake (and eat).



Orange & Olive Oil Cake (adapted from Rose Bakery & Orangette):

1 medium orange (I used 2 clementines!)
1 lemon
6 ounces raw almonds
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
4 large eggs, ideally at room temperature
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup olive oil (use Colavita extra virgin or Whole Foods 365 brand...both are very mild)
Confectioners’ sugar, for serving

Here's the schedule:
The morning of baking, toast the almonds and simmer the citrus.
I do mine in a toaster oven, but the recipe says to do it in the oven on a baking sheet. The toaster oven gets my nuts nice and golden (watch so they don't burn).
In a food processor, pulse the nuts until they resemble coarse sand. Set aside for later.



In a small saucepan, place the lemon and orange (or 2 clementines) in boiling water and turn down the heat and simmer the fruit for 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, slice the lemon in half and remove and discard all the pulp and seeds (so only the soft shell or rind is left).



Slice the oranges in half and remove only the seeds, if any, RESERVING the pulp and juice of the orange.
Place the oranges and the lemon rind in the same food processor and pulse to a coarse paste.

Now you can go shopping or take a shower; go to work; or get a facial, or go to yoga. You can bake later.

The night before serving: (this cake gets better with age)
In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the eggs and the ground almonds. Add the flour, salt and baking powder and combine.

Add the fruit and incorporate, folding in the olive oil last. See how easy that was?

Butter a 9" springform pan and heat the oven to 350F.

Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for 50-55 minutes. If the cake is getting too dark (which mine did), then cover loosely w/ foil the last few minutes of baking. Keep an eye on it, because the recipe called for 1 hour, but mine was done a bit earlier. Let fully rest and cool in the pan before removing the ring (at least 30 minutes).

Dust with powdered sugar and try to resist taking a slice until tomorrow a.m.

YUM.



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