How About Trying Olive Oil Bundt Cake For Dessert?
posted Thursday, 14 January 2010
What a dilemma! You want dessert but you know it is fattening, high in calories, full of sugar, and empty calories. You're good about watching what you eat, for the most part, but sometimes you just want a piece of cake.
Everyone hears about trans fats, the artery-clogging fat that's been linked to raising bad cholesterol and increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. We know to stay away from foods fried in oil. We stay away from the fast food french fries and onion rings deep fried in oil. We know to take the skin off of chicken before we eat it, (except organic chicken, where the skin is rich in omega 3.)
But we do need good fats, they are necessary for human life. Fatty acids from fats are what your brain uses to create the specialized cells that allow you to think and feel. A good portion of our brain is make up of fat. So it is crucial that we get good fats in our diet.
One of the good fats in olive oil, particularly, organic extra virgin olive oil. A good way to add olive oil is to drizzle it over salads or pasta. Substitute it for salad dressing and sauces.
A recipe for Olive Oil Bundt Cake caught my eye from the February 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine. Now, I'm not saying that this cake is healthy. It has a lot of sugar in it. But instead of having oil, solid shortening, lard, etc. - all containing "bad fats", it has good olive oil. Since the cake has "good" olive oil and "bad" sugar, this is an example of what I call having the good with the bad. This is actually the first time I have seen olive oil in a dessert recipe. I did not think that olive oil was used for baking. I learned something useful from this.
I have not made this cake myself yet, although I am curious to see what it tastes like. What I probably would do is leave out most of the sugar except a few tablespoons. Actually, what I probably would do is make it as recipe says first, then adapt it to compare.
Castronovo and Falcinelli have been producing a fruity extra-virgin olive oil in Sicily for several years; they use it in their cooking and sell it at their restaurants. Executive chef Will Prunty created this cake to showcase the oil at the newest restaurant in the Frankies empire, the coffee shop Cafe Pedlar.
For those of you who would like to try it, here is the recipe:
Olive Oil Bundt Cake
12 Servings
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. In a bowl, using a hand held electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar and orange zest at medium-high speed until smooth. Gradually beat in the olive oil until creamy, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the cake flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating on medium speed between additions.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Let the cake cool completely before cutting into slices and serving.
The olive oil cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
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P.S. If anyone does make the Olive Oil Bundt Cake, let me know how you like it. And, it if you happen to be in Sicily, stop be Cafe Pedlar and try the real thing.
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