All content copyright Katrina Hall 2008 through 2025

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

dairy-free Italian Olive Oil cake with orange zest








I hope you had a wonderful Easter! I spent much of it making a birthday cake for my son, whose birthday is the first of April ( yes, he's an April Fool), who came to visit late in the day with his very lovely (and serious) girlfriend. I'm glad I had something to do - I was feeling a little nervous about meeting someone who may very well become part of the family.
My son developed a milk allergy last year, so, even though he asked for the traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting , I couldn't do it. I remembered his days of pain last year after partaking of several helpings of cake and frosting. So I made this wonderful Italian Olive Oil cake, and jazzed it up with a dairy-free frosting from Cybele Pascal's Allergen-Free Baker's handbook. For a little more tang, I also made a lemon glaze that I brushed on while it was still warm. The frosting was just fine, but I missed the butter and cream cheese taste . The recipe called for vegetable shortening, and all I had was Crisco, but adding lemon juice and a little soymilk made it pretty tasty. Finding a good vegetable shortening is on my grocery list. You can also just dust the cake with confectioner's sugar, using a small sieve and shaking all over the cake. Strawberries or orange slices are a pretty garnish, too.
The cake:
from Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker
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Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease an 8" cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment , otherwise it sticks.
1 large orange
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup light olive oil or half virgin olive oil , half canola oil
3/4 cup plain or vanilla soymilk
1 1/2 cups King Arthur flour
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. cinnamon
pinch of salt
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Grate or microplane the orange and squeeze out tablespoon of the fresh juice .
In mixer bowl, add the zest, orange juice, and eggs and mix.
Add the sugar and mix very well, then add the olive oil or olive/canola, mixing til creamy.
Add the soymilk, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix very well.
If the mixture is very soupy, add another tablespoon or so of flour.
Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes.
Let sit on cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Run a dull knife around the pan. If the cake doesn't come out easily, gently pry around the cake with the dull knife. Remove parchment circle, and turn cake rightside up.
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Lemon glaze:
4 T. fresh lemon juice
4 T. sugar
Warm in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved, then brush on the cake.
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Dairy-free vanilla frosting:
In a mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment mix:
1 cup dairy free vegetable shortening
pinch of salt
1 T. fresh lemon or orange juice
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 T. soymilk
1/2 t. vanilla
Whip until the frosting is fluffy .
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You might also enjoy: New York Lemon Cake

14 comments:

Sonia said...

Oh, Kat....! This one is going to my "To Try" file for sure....I have Nick's The Modern Baker cookbook and ahve tried a fe things from it - mostly breads....they all turn out great!
Thank you for directing me to the blog post!

jenious said...

Your 2nd photo is beautiful. Sounds like a lovely cake.

katrina said...

Glad you liked, Sonia! I agree - Nick's cookbook is wonderful - and every recipe I've tried has come out perfectly.

katrina said...

Thanks, Jenious!

Lindsey Frances said...

This is exactly the kind of spring cake I've been craving.

katrina said...

Love your blog, Lindsey! You're a woman after my own heart - the more spices and herbs, the better life is:) Delighted you liked this cake!

Sara said...

Yum. I love it and want some right now.

Daphne DeLaurier said...

Katrina,
With all that's going on around you, your blog looks great - especially this last recipe!
-Daphne

katrina said...

Ummm, Sara - me , too - but the birthday boy got to take it home, darnit:) Glad you enjoyed!

katrina said...

Daphne! How lovely to see you! It's certainly been a challenge, but who isn't dealing with a gazillion ups and downs these days? Hope to see you on Twitter a little more often as things settle down a bit. Thanks so much for your warm thoughts....
love Katrina

italian kitchen decoration said...

oh .... so much, i am in love with all these ingredients

katrina said...

Thanks, italian kitchen! This is one of the lightest, most yummy cake I've made yet. There are just times you don't need frosting.

Jamie said...

A marvelous cake and bookmarked! While we still have oranges. It is such a beautiful cake and I love the olive oil-orange combo which I imagine gives wonderful if delicate flavor and a lot of moistness. Thanks for sharing it with me.

katrina said...

Jamie - now I can't remember why I sent you this link - was it an almond cake that was a little dry that made me think of this particular cake? Well, happy you liked it!