Celebrate everyday occasions with a simple, easy Olive Oil Tea Cake. Dressed with powdered sugar, this dessert is a delightful crowd-pleaser.
When I was writing my newspaper column this week, I started mulling the idea of whether home cooking can really be quick and easy. It's something that I strive for in my cooking and my recipe development, but for the extreme kitchen novice, can it ever really be quick or easy?
Much of the recipes you read in food magazines today come from magazine test kitchens, which are most often staffed with culinary school graduates. While this is great, given their professional expertise, it's also impractical. Culinary school graduates possess knowledge in the kitchen that the average home cook doesn't have, and that can mean recipes called easy that aren't really for the novice.
One of my pet peeves as a food writer is leafing through magazines and books devoted to quick meals -- things that proclaim they'll be ready in 30 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever -- and seeing long, long, long ingredients lists. This is counterintuitive. For a recipe to be truly quick and easy, it needs to both be ready in a relatively short amount of time and also have a short ingredients list. Once the list becomes 10 or 15 ingredients deep, the time gathering and preparing those ingredients chips away at the easy factor.
Speaking of long ingredients lists, my 10-year-old son Will recently picked up a used copy of a Rachael Ray cookbook for kids. After digging through the book, he found a recipe for lasagna roll-ups that he's psyched to make. As he read the ingredients to me, taking stock of what he'll need, I was surprised by how many ingredients will be needed to make the dish. Moreover, I was shocked by the number of steps necessary for this quick and easy meal for kids to make.
There's some irony in there.
(More on that recipe later ... once he makes it.)
What do you think? Are some quick and easy recipes unobtainable? Are my quick and easy recipes generally quick and easy? I would love your feedback. When I say something can be made in a certain amount of time, I mean it -- but I also recognize that my time estimations come with the assumption that you have certain kitchen skills.
For that matter, would videos on how to slice, dice and mince faster help with the quick and easy factor of the recipes I share?
Now ... onto the cake.
Olive Oil Tea Cake is a simple cake that can be whipped up in about an hour or so. This cake is sweet, but not overly so. And it's, as the name suggests, delicious with tea.
As far as cakes go, this one is pretty easy. It's made in one bowl -- the bowl of a stand mixer -- and requires little more than adding ingredients to the mixer in a certain order. Once it's baked, the cake is cooled and then dusted with powdered sugar.
Easy? Definitely. Tasty? Absolutely.
This is best served warm, not long after making it. When it's warm like that, it has a nice crust and a tender, light crumb. It's so comforting like that. Flavored with vanilla extract, which provides a certain warmth to the flavor, and a touch of orange blossom water, this reminds me of a cake version of a madeleine cookie (a French butter cookie).
Just try it.
Olive Oil Tea Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon orange blossom water
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
- powdered sugar, , for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch round baking pan. Flour the pan (to do this, put a little flour into the pan and tilt it while tapping it gentle so the flour covers the surface all around).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the olive oil and sugar on medium speed until well combined. Add the eggs and beat for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract and orange blossom water and beat well to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl. Run the mixer on low until just moistened. Add the heavy cream and beat for 1-2 minutes, until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out cleanly.
- Let the cake cool in the pan on top of a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before using a knife to gently loosen the edges and remove from the pan. Dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy.
I definitely think "easy" is overused in recipes, and most found in book and magazines are anything but. But is really is the ingredients list that turns me off more than anything - if it is too long, forget it, except for special occasions.
I have to agree on both points, but especially about long ingredients lists being a turnoff. Honestly, that stops me from using some cookbooks I've bought for the sole purpose of making dinners easier.
I definitely believe in quick and easy meals, you just have to set yourself up for them and read all the instructions ahead of time. Not every recipe falls in that category.
That's a great point too. That prep -- both the reading and the mise en place -- is absolutely necessary.
I agree with you. If a meal is going to be quick and easy, it better be or else I will never make it again. This cake is gorgeous and I love that you used olive oil!
Thank you, Ashley!
I am all about quick and easy, especially this time of year when I just don't have all the time I need to get everything done. I love olive oil cakes, and they are great to have on hand and enjoy throughout the week.
I totally agree!
Quick and easy is definitely obtainable. I have a teen who makes an apple crisp all by himself. I think your olive oil tea cake fits this too. Easy ingredient list, doable instructions and I'm sure devoured once it's ready to serve.
Thanks, Ali. I love when my kids cook. Bet that apple crisp is great.
LOVE cakes like this one. It looks fantastic!
You raise some interesting points. I think on my site when I call something weeknight or fast or easy I do mean for someone with my cooking level and my pantry, i.e., *I* found it fast/easy/good for a weeknight. Which is NOT to say that I think a beginner should avoid it, but yes it will take longer and require perhaps a few purchases. But I also will be the first to admit that I hate the trend toward fewer ingredients and wish people would learn to cook with more (especially because I prefer one pot meals so it is the only meal I am making). I also loathe the 30 minute meal trend because in my experience no meal takes 30 minutes. For me a fast meal takes about 45 minutes.
That's a really interesting point, Laura, about recipes being fast and easy at our cooking level. That definitely has truth in it -- but how do you convey that to readers? Should we convey that to readers?
Now this is something i have not tried before! I would love some with my tea!
quick and easy works for me.
Olive Oil Cake is always amazing. Have you tried to pair it with olive oil ice cream? I tried it over the summer and let me tell you it was worth it. Don't know how easy or hard it was, but it was good!
I try not to use "easy" unless I think someone with no cooking or baking skills could throw it together quickly and a recipe that I think is fool-proof. But I agree- "easy" is in the eye of the beholder really. Now this CAKE looks very easy - I am totally making this!
This looks fantastic! I am very intrigued by the orange blossom water!
You had me at "easy" and "one bowl" 🙂 I know what you mean, not all recipes that claim to be easy are, but this one looks very manageable! I haven't had a cake like this before either, looking forward to trying it.
This looks just delightful! I can see myself enjoying a piece with a fragrant cup of coffee.
I love the fruitness of olive oil and love it in cakes! Having a one bowl recipe takes the cake! Love that you added orange blossom water. I can't find it but I do have some rose water I might use!
That really looks like a perfect tea cake. Easier than the lasagna your son wants to make! 🙂