I say olive oil cake. You say torta di capezzana!

This olive oil cake was part of the Tuscan feast that we had for dinner on Sunday.  A couple of people have asked about it so I thought I would blog the actual recipe.  As a child there was always a bottle of olive oil at home stored in a little glass bottle, I always thought it was medicine instead of  a culinary delight as all it was used for in our house was ear ache! First sign of a pain in our ear, a teaspoon of it would be warmed and dropped into the painful ear and plugged with cotton wool. I am not sure if it was an old wives tale or if it actually worked but it was mandatory in our house!  Nowadays I much prefer to cook with it and dip bread in it, far more civilised!

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3 large eggs
• 300g caster sugar
• 300ml finest extra-virgin olive oil
• 300ml milk
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• juice of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a springform tin.
Beat the eggs and sugar together till pale yellow.
Gently stir in olive oil, milk, orange zest and juice.
Add in sifted flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
Pour into tin and and bake for 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
Slice and enjoy!!

Despite making the mistake of adding in the zest of an entire orange it did not lessen my enjoyment of the cake.  Very similar to a orange madeira cake with a slightly different texture. Gorgeous to have with a cup of fresh coffee, all that was missing was the dappled Tuscan sunshine!