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 love and use olive oil as much as I can - we go through a ridiculous amount every week 🙂 This cake sounds awesome and I love that touch of orange blossom water!
I completely agree about long ingredient lists - I think many recipe writers forget that prep time counts. Also, most home cooks take a lot longer to do their cutting than culinary school grads or professional chefs.
I'm totally with you! Quick meal recipes shouldn't have oodles of ingredients. And this olive oil cake looks delightful! I love baking with olive oil. 🙂
I couldn't agree more that while some "quick and easy" recipes do hit that mark, it is highly related to the skill level of the cook. I know that recipes that I first started making back when I could still burn water would now take me no time at all. I try, too, to provide step-by-step photos so that folks can see what each step should look like so that they don't get to the end and go 'oh crap! I forgot (fill in the blank)!"
As for this cake, the only problem with it is that I don't have a slice to have alongside my coffee right now! Simple, beautiful, and likely delicious!
I agree that sometimes quick and easy doesn't really translate to the kitchen. If you're including ingredients I can't find in my normal grocery store I'm out. I do however think this cake looks simple and delicious. Love the addition of orange blossom water 🙂
I love simple cakes like this, they're just the most beautiful kind to me. And it's funny, I don't think a long ingredient list necessarily disqualifies something from being easy. I think it's more about how clear and concise the instructions are written, and that it doesn't include any difficult tasks or methods for somebody less experienced in the kitchen. (Of course I'm a culinary school grad, so maybe that's just me?)
I read that article and I know that many moms do not have the time to plan/shop/prep/cook meals, even if they are supposed to be quick and easy. I do also know other moms with kids that make the time to plan/prep/shop/cook, and it's mostly on the weekends for the week. It takes organization and the willpower, but it can be done. Lovely cake!
I struggle with that same subject when posting recipes to my blog. Even though there is a trend (for lack of a better word) of people getting back into the kitchen, I'm noticing that most people are looking for really quick and easy recipes. Subsequently, I post what I like to cook and hope that it resonates with people. Kind of like this olive oil cake. I would (and will) definitely make this. It looks wonderful with easy to follow directions.
The title "30 minute meals" or "easy recipe" always makes me laugh when I see a list of ingredients as long as my arm, more than half of which are purchased already prepared from the deli or something. A tea cake that I can get in the oven in 10 minutes? Now that's an easy recipe!
Oh wow, I love your column! Olive oil tea cake sound fantastic, especially with added orange blossom water. Tasty!!
Such a great looking little cake! Tea cake is so good, isn't it! Any cake that's like a madeleine cookie is the cake for me!
I can' wait to see your son's creation! My 11 year old daughter is passionate about cooking as well. And my 11 year old niece is getting more and more into it too! Love teaching kids this all-important life skill early!