Olive Oil Bundt Cake

When Tara and I were working on Almost Meatless, I very much looked forward to tasting our tests for the egg chapter. And early on in the process, I was looking forward to the cooking too, mainly because I knew I’d be cracking dozens of eggs in just a few days and I believed I would finally master the skill. Ha. Some people can crack an egg cleanly in half with one hand and I want to be one of them. But at this point I’d settle for the absence of shell shrapnel in the cracked eggs. No matter how much practice I get, I always get shell in the eggs. See the above photo for evidence of the carnage I inflict on unsuspecting egg shells, leaving their edges more shattered than cracked. For this reason, among others, Dan, my precision-obsessed husband, does most of the baking at our house.

For the past week or so, he has been under a lot of pressure at work. He’s scheduled to deliver a presentation today. Like baking, Dan’s computer-and-technology centered work suits his personality. But public speaking does not. He’s the type of person who doesn’t respond to pep talks, praise, and assurances of his competence. (The kinds of things that work for me.) When he is stressed, he doesn’t need a hug. He needs cake. I once thought I had a sweet tooth. That was before I met Dan, a man who reviews the pastry menu first in restaurants, considers a brownie appropriate for breakfast, and believes dessert ought to be a multi-course affair. So yesterday, I knew there was just one way to show my support. Cake.

I chose the recipe,  this one from the February issue of Food & Wine magazine, because I had basically everything on hand with two exceptions. The original recipe calls for orange zest, and I substituted lemon. F&W calls for 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt, and I used 1 1/4 teaspoon plain table salt. Otherwise, I followed it to the letter.

When I was streaming the olive oil into the egg and sugar mixture, I felt like I was making mayonnaise as the satiny batter emulsified under the mixer’s whisk.

I probably shouldn’t have tasted the batter, which had more pronounced flavors of olive oil and lemon than the final cake. The finished product has a soft, fine crumb because of the cake flour and a lovely rich moisture from the oil. Its flavors are more delicate than bold. I would like to try it another time with stronger flavored olive oil and the orange zest that’s actually called for in the original recipe.

I love the fluted appearance of a Bundt cake, with it’s built in serving size suggestions for small slices and larger slices:

Though when Dan saw it, he decided it needed a dusting a powdered sugar, which made it even prettier.