Olive oil and Lemons

This is one of myblogs  for the Ibizasun newspaper which is printed every Wednesday, it is also online. www.ibizasun.com:

Lemons and olive oil

Hello my fellow baker’s, I hope you are all well and enjoying the start of another Ibiza season, I hope at least some of you tried last week’s easy-peasy recipe, it is well worth having a go at this even just for the fun aspect of it!!!

So this week, I have been enjoying getting under way with the sugar-craft work for wedding cakes, yesterday I was happily making thistles, roses, hydrangea’s  and some fantasy flowers in lovely bright greens and  bright blues, this will be an unusual cake – very striking, a nice way to start.

Now we are into May and the celebrations have commenced especially in Santa Eulalia, where the town puts on some lovely displays and events almost every day throughout the month, this is a very good time to visit this cosmopolitan town.

With celebrations, spring, and the start of the season in mind let’s make a cake fit for this vibrant time.  So something bright and light! Lemons are grown on this Island and do make for a lovely tasting cake, so to be  traditional  to our Mediterranean Island we will use olive oil for the ‘fat’ content of this lovely moist cake. It’s not often the British use olive oil for cooking cakes, so many of you will not be familiar with this method,  don’t be put off using olive oil, the cooked cake is very moist with a slight fruity flavour, it doesn’t overpower the other ingredients at all and in fact compliments the burst of lemon. It could possibly be a little bit more healthy too……

So remembering to use all the rules and of course rule number one the most important cook with love and passion!!  Remember to use ‘warm’ room temperature ingredients especially the eggs!!!

Ingredients,

275g caster sugar

3 large eggs

The zest and juice of 2 lemons

120ml extra virgin olive oil

80ml milk

275g of plain flour (home-pride or English flour similar)

1 level teaspoon of baking powder

For the filling:

2 tbsp lemon curd + whipped fresh cream or butter cream

Method:

Prepare 2 round tins 24cm. (either with greased-greaseproof paper or if you have them use cake liners.

Heat the oven to 180c or 350f or gas 5

Whisk the sugar and eggs together until they are really light, fluffy and very pale. An electric mix is best, otherwise be prepared to hand whisk for a long time, now using a metal spoon stir in the lemon juice and zest, then gently stir in the olive oil and milk taking care not to over stir as all the time you are stirring you are losing that precious air, also make sure the ingredients are warm before adding. Now fold in the sieved flour and baking powder still being careful to keep in that precious air.  Divide the mixture between the 2 prepared tins and cook in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes, insert a skewer into the centre of each cake to check if they are done, the skewer should come out clean and the cake should be firm to touch. Leave them to cool in the tins, then turn them out on to a wire rack (tip: put a tea towel over the wire rack so that the ‘wire’ doesn’t mark the cakes). Sandwich the cakes together with plenty of lemon curd and also add some cream or buttercream if liked. Dust the top with sifted icing sugar and serve!

Give it a try!

Till next week,

The Queen of Cakes. xx