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APPLE AND OLIVE OIL CAKE

A dense, moist, just sweet enough olive oil cake decorated with sliced seasonal apples. Perfect for dessert of daytime snack!
Course Dessert
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 10

Ingredients

  • butter for greasing the dish
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil (use a good quality, but not too peppery)
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • grated zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 cups AP flour , plus extra for the baking dish
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 medium apple

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 10 inch springform pan, or line a 10 inch round cake pan with parchment. (I also line the bottom of the springform pan with parchment)
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Stir in the olive oil, milk, and lemon zest.
  3. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the wet ingredients o the dry, stirring until just blended. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
  4. Place the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Peel the apple, and using a mandolin (or slicing very thinly with a sharp knife) thinly slice the apple and then drop the slices into the lemon juice to prevent browning. Then arrange the slices over the the cake batter.
  5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes (I had to go WAY beyond this time, just keep checking) until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. (see Notes below) The bake time will vary. If the cake needs more time but is browning too quickly, tent it with foil and continue baking.
  6. Cool in the pan before unfolding.

Recipe Notes

As noted above, this cake took me almost 1 1/2 hours to bake off and was cooked through. A friend made it and found that it took her almost 2 hours. But following the suggestion to tent with foil totally helped. It is a very moist cake, so even if the skewer or toothpick comes out with a few bits on it, I would be content with this- you don't want the edges to totally dry out waiting for a clean toothpick. I found that the cake settled and the moist bits in the centre were just fine!

Having said this, I may try this in a 9x13 baking pan next time- the batter will have a bit more room to spread out, making it a tad thinner, but making it quicker to bake up. And more surface area for decorative apple slices. As to the apple slices: why not try a pear, figs, or even an orange sliced thinly? Or what about grapes? Not sliced of course! This cake lasted a good week for us! All that olive oil really keeps it safe!

Adapted from Sunday Suppers by Karen Mordechai