Olive Oil Cake

Im so sorry. It’s been a little while since I’ve written up a recipe for the blog so please accept my apologies, particularly to my email subscribers as the Instagram and Facbook pages have been updated pretty regularly.

In order to drum up some level of sympathy I’ve decided to make a list of all the things that have caused my 2 year old to have a meltdown today (n.b this list is by no means exhaustive).

1. Wanted to wear Moana socks. No, not those Moana socks, the ones with Elsa on (which are in fact, not Moana socks at all).
2. Wanted to walk ahead of her sister on the way to school, not alongside.
3. Sister went to school.
4. Sister came out of school.
5. Wanted round doughnut to be a triangle.
6. Our house is now on the wrong side of the street (we have not moved house).
7. Wanted sweetcorn on the cob not off!
8. Wanted to go to soft play.
9. We went to soft play.
10. Did NOT want to leave soft play…

It seems the only thing pacifying my teething 2 year old currently is baking and Blippi… so of course we’re baking.

This Olive oil cake came about as a returned favour for one of my sisters, who is vegetarian and lactose free. The oil replaces the need for butter and keeps the cake moist and delcious for at least 3 days.

You will need an 8″ deep cake tin, well greased or lined with baking paper.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 220g self raising flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 225ml Olive oil
• Juice and zest 1 lemon
• 200g glaće cherries washed and dried (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until light, a bit foamy and increased in volume by at least a third.

Continue to whisk whilst slowly adding in the olive oil.

With a metal spoon, fold in the flour, almonds and lemon to form a thick batter.

Gently stir 150g of cherries in, keeping the rest aside to decorate (the amount of cherries is not an exact science- I’m pretty sure more cherries were eaten during baking than in the finished cake).

Pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

We iced ours with a basic glaze made mixing 200g icing sugar with a teaspoon lemon extract and a few drops of water, then topped with the remaining cherries. (I’d even managed to get the kids out of their pjs and into day clothes whilst the cake was in the oven- go me!)