Greek Olive Oil and Citrus Cake (p. 456)

Taco night is tonight, and I made more Mango Salsa, which I'm super excited for. And, since we've been busy with friends the last few nights and I haven't had a chance to make many recipes, I decided to tackle a cake this afternoon as well.

Our friends who came into town last night left us with some beautiful oranges, so I made this citrusy cake that called for both the zest and the juice of an orange and a lemon. Mix these ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

The base of the cake is made up of cake flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and dried currants, which I had leftover from the stuffing I made for Christmas Eve dinner. Into the dry ingredients alternate between mixing in a combination of sugar and olive oil beaten together and the bowl of citrus. Once all the dry ingredients are absorbed into the wet ones, add in a little bit of brandy.

I used extra sugar in the recipe because I'm tired of my Mediterranean desserts not being sweet enough and going to waste. The extra sugar made the batter also need more olive oil -- until I added more it was incredibly dense.

Unfortunately, this recipe didn't list a temperature to set the oven to -- it just said to bake for an hour. I set my oven at 350 but the bottom burnt a little in parts, so if you re-create this you might want to go a little lower.

It's also pretty crumbly, maybe more olive oil would have helped? Or less? I'm not sure...

Luckily, I liked this one. I'm really glad that I added the extra sugar, because I think it needed it. The currants add a great flavor, and I could see eating this even as part of my breakfast with a nice hot mug of coffee on the side.

The best part was, I had everything I needed in my pantry!

Greek Olive oil and Citrus Cake : Free!