rosemary, blood orange & olive oil cake
Rosemary and Blood Orange was a combination I first used when putting a spin on the classic Screwdriver cocktail. It’s such a lovely combination, I just couldn’t help myself but try experimenting with it a little more and soon discovered that it works amazingly well in an olive oil cake.
This is a real feel-good summer recipe that brings the fragrances of both of these ingredients into your kitchen, whilst balancing perfectly with the more earthy notes of the olive oil. It’s a lovely moist cake that is not overly sweet.
You can also add a little yoghurt whipped cream and some blood orange syrup to knock it up a level.
for the cake
60g plain flour
2.5tsp baking powder
1 large blood orange
125g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
250ml olive oil
5 eggs
3 rosemary sprigs
for the syrup
100g caster sugar
2 large blood oranges
for the yoghurt whipped cream
250ml whipping cream
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
100g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
method
Start by preheating your oven to 160c and greasing a medium cake tin with a little olive oil. This recipe will make a cake that is around 6” in diameter and 2” thick, however, it will rise to about double that height whilst cooking, so make sure your tin and oven can handle it.
In a large bowl, sift together 60g of plain flour with 2.5 teaspoons of baking powder and 125g of ground almonds. Then add 200g of caster sugar and stir it all together.
Next, measure out 250ml of olive oil (try a lighter oil the first time you make this cake, then move to a stronger flavoured one if you want to intensify the flavour next time) and add to the bowl of dry ingredients, alongside the 5 eggs, the zest of 1 large blood orange, the juice of half that orange, and the leaves of 3 sprigs of rosemary (finely chopped please). Gently fold this all together until you have a smooth batter.
Pour this into the cake tin and bake for around 45 minutes. Be warned, this cake will rise a lot during the cook and will come out of the oven wobbling as if it is undercooked. Let it cool and it will shrink back into the cake tin. Only remove from the tin once it has almost fully cooled.
Whilst cooling, you can make the syrup. Take the other 2 large blood oranges and zest them. Then, chop in half and juice, also adding in the juice from the half orange you have left from earlier. Add the juice and zest to a saucepan and mix in the 100g of caster sugar. Allow this to simmer on a low heat until it has reduced down and coats a spoon. Let this cool as well, and it will thicken.
Whilst the syrup and cake are cooling, let’s make the yoghurt whipped cream. Start by whipping the cream on its own until it starts to stiffen a little. Add in the 100g of sugar and whip until fluffy stiff peaks form. Add in the seeds of a vanilla pod (or a little vanilla extract) and 2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt before giving it one last whip.
Serve the cake with a big dollop of the whipped cream and a good swig of the syrup.
