Olive Oil Jam Cake w/ Mirabelles

I know you must be sick of me by now with all of my olive oil cakes, but they are still my favorite.

Not too sweet, nice and moist and always the perfect choice for breakfast or after school snack w/ coffee (if your kids drink coffee....it didn't stunt my growth, I'm 5' 8").

Here, I added in some fresh rosemary to be different.

When the cake came out, it looked too plain to me.
Just a boring loaf.

Should I ice it? Sprinkle powdered sugar on top?
I wanted more.

How about I slice the cake in half, horizontally, and fill it with jam?

Yes.

Mirabelles are golden plums and we see them in season when we go to France in September.
They are all over the markets and every restaurant in Paris serves a mirabelle tart during the season.

Mon Maman, a French confiture makes delicious preserves and jams, and you can find them easily here in the U.S. at most supermarkets.

Their newest flavor is Mirabelle jam! Stock up if you can find it. It's so good.

If you can't find mirabelle preserves, then by all means, use fig or raspberry, or skip the jam all together, you can just have a plain olive oil cake.

And of course I iced it with confectioners sugar and milk. Why not?

It turned out to be one fabulous cake.

Bake the cake.

Olive Oil Jam Cake:

1 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 small orange
1/2 cup mild tasting olive oil (I use Colavita)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tsp of fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)
jam of your choice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, rub the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest between your fingers until fragrant. Beat in olive oil. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

The original recipe for the olive oil cake wants you to "aerate" the mixture by beating for 4 minutes.
Too long when you are relying on just your arm strength, so I just did my usual beating (about a minute).

Beat in the vanilla, baking powder, salt, and lemon juice. Add 1/3 of the flour and beat until blended.
Add half of the milk and continue beating. Repeat additions by adding 1/3 of the flour, the remaining milk, and the remaining flour.

If using, add in the fresh chopped rosemary.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cake will rise and be cracked on top.
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

You can stop here if you like, and have a perfectly delicious cake, but why?
Aren't you curious?

Let's continue.

When you feel the cake is solid enough to slice (about 20 minutes cooled should do it), then carefully slice down the middle of the cake, horizontally, with a serrated knife.

Spread the jam on one side only and close the cake back up.

I mixed a cup of powdered sugar w/ a tbsp of milk to make an icing, and poured that over the cake as well, why not?

Let rest and serve the next day, if you think you can wait that long!

So delicious.

I will continue to bake olive oil cakes, so I hope you like them as much as I do. ;)