Olive Oil Cake
A single, golden, slightly cracked round cake with powdered sugar snowed over it and a heap of berries in the middle looks like something a grandmother in a coastal town has made every Sunday for sixty years. It is one bowl, one whisk, and a pan, and it is done and cooling before your shower. It also gets better sitting on the counter, which means the one dessert in this library that involves baking is the one that is least able to go wrong on the night.
- Cost for two
- $24
- Active time
- 15 min
- Done ahead
- 45%
- 1 hr 25 min before 7:30
- Hands off at
- 6:55
- T-35
Allergens: Eggs · Wheat (flour) · Milk (milk or yogurt)·Serves: 2, with cake for the week (an 8-slice cake; a small one looks like a mistake)·Oven: 350°F, then free for the main from 7:00
Gear: One 9-inch round cake pan (fallback: a 9-inch square baking dish, or an 8-inch round with 5 minutes added to the timer), one large mixing bowl, a whisk (fallback: a fork and more patience), a measuring cup and measuring spoons, a toothpick or a thin knife, a grater (small holes), a phone timer. A round of parchment for the pan bottom helps; if you have none, oil the pan and dust it with a spoon of flour.
Start at 5:30. Hands off from 6:55. Stove mode follows the clock while you cook.
The 7:30 Timeline
Read it bottom-up if you like; cook it top-down.
Done before she arrives
Aisle order
Shopping list
Produce
Lemons
2
Raspberries or strawberries
or a mix; whatever looks best
1 clamshell
Dairy & Cheese
Whole milk
you use ¾ cup; plain whole-milk yogurt works too
1 small carton
Eggs
buy the half dozen
3
Pantry & Canned
All-purpose flour
smallest bag; you use 1½ cups
Granulated sugar
smallest bag; you use 1 cup
Baking powder
small can
Powdered sugar
small bag or box
This is the "oil not counted" oil, but you need a real amount of it, so check the bottle
Olive oil. ; if it is nearly empty, buy one. A plain extra-virgin is right; nothing fancy, nothing "light."
¾ cup.
Pantry (you probably have these)
Salt
At the stove
Method
- 1
Turn the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle.
- 2
Rub the inside of the pan with a little olive oil on a paper towel. Lay a round of parchment on the bottom if you have it; if not, put a spoon of flour in the pan, tilt and tap until the oil is dusted white, and tip the extra out.
- 3
Zest both lemons into the mixing bowl on the small holes of the grater, yellow only.
- 4
Cut one lemon in half and squeeze 2 tablespoons of juice into a mug, catching the seeds with your fingers.
- 5
Crack 3 eggs into the bowl with the zest. Add 1 cup sugar.
- 6
Whisk hard for a full minute. The mixture goes from orange-yellow to pale yellow and thickens slightly. Your arm should be a little tired.
- 7
Pour in ¾ cup olive oil, ¾ cup milk, and the lemon juice. Whisk until it is one smooth liquid, about 20 seconds.
- 8
Add 1½ cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt on top.
- 9
Whisk just until you cannot see any dry flour, about 30 seconds. A few small lumps are fine. Stop; more whisking makes a tougher cake.
- 10
Pour the batter into the pan and scrape the bowl out with the spoon. Tap the pan on the counter twice to pop big air bubbles.
- 11
Slide the pan onto the middle rack. Set a 38-minute timer.
- 12
At the timer, open the oven and push a toothpick straight down into the center of the cake, then pull it out. Clean, or with a few dry crumbs stuck to it: done. Wet, shiny batter on it: 5 more minutes, then test again in a fresh spot. Keep going in 5-minute steps until clean.
- 13
Set the pan on the stovetop and leave it 15 minutes. The cake will pull away from the sides a little as it cools.
- 14
Run a thin knife around the edge between the cake and the pan. Set a flat plate upside-down over the pan, hold both together with both hands, and flip. Lift the pan off. Peel the parchment off the cake. If it fights you, leave it in the pan and serve wedges straight from there; nobody has ever complained.
- 15
Leave the cake on the counter, uncovered, until dessert. Rinse the berries and let them dry on a paper towel.
- 16
At 8:40, shake powdered sugar over the top through a small sieve, or tap it off a spoon from a foot up. Heap the berries in the center.
- 17
Bring the whole cake to the table and cut it there.
Is it done?
The check that needs no experience
Thermometer: 200°F on a probe pushed into the center, if you want a number. No thermometer: a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean or with dry crumbs, not wet batter; the top is golden and springs back when you press it lightly with a fingertip; the edges have pulled slightly away from the sides of the pan.
The #1 way to screw it up
You cut into it at 8:45 and the center is wet and gummy, because the toothpick came out "mostly clean" at 6:33 and you called it.
Recovery
The outer two inches of the cake are fully baked; the center is not. Cut wedges from the outer ring only and serve those with the berries and a heavy snow of powdered sugar. Do not serve the wet center; it has raw egg in it. If you notice before she arrives, put the cake back in the pan (or on the sheet tray) at 350°F for 12 minutes and it finishes. Next time: a toothpick with any wet batter on it is a "no," not a "close enough."
- It stuck to the pan and came out in two pieces
- serve it from the pan in wedges, powdered sugar over everything. Powdered sugar hides more than a good lawyer.
- The top domed and cracked
- that is the rustic look, and it means the oven was hot enough. Flip it so the flat bottom faces up if you want it tidy; leave it if you want it to look like a nonna made it.
The reveal
Plating
Set the whole cake on a flat plate or board, snow powdered sugar over the top through a sieve until the cracks are white, and heap the berries in the middle in a loose pile. Carry it to the table whole and cut it there, one wedge each, sliding each wedge onto a small plate with a knife. Spoon a few berries and their juice beside each wedge and dust the rim of the plate with a little more powdered sugar.
Vegetarian swap
It already is. For a guest who does not eat dairy: ¾ cup orange juice or a plain oat milk in place of the whole milk, same everything else, same timeline; the cake is slightly lighter and just as good. There is no egg-free version of this cake worth publishing.
What to pour
- Wine
- Prosecco — La Marca, about $15; or a Moscato d'Asti if she likes sweet. Both are already cold from the spritz.
- Beer
- skip it. Nobody has ever wanted a beer with cake.
- No alcohol
- coffee, black, made after the plates are cleared. This is the correct answer and she will think so too.
Take this to the supermarket.
The First Bulletproof Dinner as a PDF, with the timelines. Free.