We’re in a phase around here. I can’t tell you anything more about this phase because if I did, if I DARE mention the true beauty of the phase, I know it would disappear. So let’s just say that this phase is amazing. It’s lovely. A side effect of this phase is me having a little more time.
Time, ahhhh. I’ve wasted much of that time on Facebook (I just can’t quit you!) and staring at beautiful food photography here and here and here. And every so often, I get really productive and listen to my audio book while I steam mop the floors (Shark Steam Mop – #bestpurchaseof2012).
But lately I’ve also done a bit of playing around in the kitchen. Making homemade strawberry lemonade. And strawberry jam. (Dudes, we live right by a strawberry farm). Learning to take pictures of food. Staring at the bacon in the fridge and feeling lousy for buying commercial pork products (but.oh.my.god.i.love.bacon). Prepping dinners. The kitchen is the center of our family. Our life seems to revolve around cooking meals, enjoying good food, and looking forward to the next time we can eat.
So the other day, the girls were napping(ish) and I stumbled upon a recipe for Olive Oil Cake in People magazine. I debated continuing to flip through People but while I was staring lovingly at the bacon, I noticed some farm eggs that needed to get used. So partially out of guilt for buying expensive eggs that weren’t getting used and since I had all the necessary ingredients for the recipe, I made this cake on an impulse. Just popped up and made it without a second thought. I never even considered whether my family would enjoy something like olive oil cake.
The cake happens to be really easy to make. A couple of bowls, a cake pan, a bit of mixing and you’re good to go. Even the ingredients are accessible. Assuming you’ve got kids, you probably have whole milk. You might not have in your pantry is cake flour but you could substitute all purpose flour in. If you’re curious about the difference in flours, you can read more about that here. And although the original recipe called for coconut, I didn’t have any and so I left it out. No big dealio.
Thankfully, I took one bite of this cake and knew that everyone around here would love it. It’s sweet and moist (do you hate that word too?) and so frosting is totally unnecessary. A few berries and the cake is good to go. (Yes, yes, we have a lot of strawberries).
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 2½ cups of sugar
- zest of two lemons
- 1¼ cups whole milk
- 1½ cups extra virgin olive oil
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9×13 pan.
- Combine both flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until mixture forms a ribbon. Stir in zest, milk and oil until combined.
- Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into ban and bake 45-50 minutes.
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Colleen Pence - That looks yummy and I love easy cakes!
Colleen Pence recently posted…San Antonio mom blogger Veronica Rouse with Seven Lovely Things