Olive oil cake--dedicated to MM Mama

This recipe is from Bittman's book (pg 852) and the cake turned out fluffy, moist and delicious! I dedicated it to MM Mama not because she asked for the recipe, but also because I could not make it without her present!

(The cake is shown in the top of the picture, and sorry I didn't manage to take one for the whole cake--not enough will power. The rest of the picture features the corn bread and the Irish Soda Bread I made at the same time. )

As mentioned earlier this recipe requires egg-white beating, and that is not something I feel like doing with my own arms. But the new mixer makes this step a piece of cake!

Makes: 1 rectangular cake or 2 layers (12~16 servings)
Time: About 1 hour, plus time to cool

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing the pan, I used olive oil.
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
0.25 teaspoon of salt
o.5 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
a third of cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon or orange zest, I used orange

Instructions:

1. preheat the oven to 350F/177C. Grease a cake pan. Combine flour, baking power and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. Use mixer to beat the oil and 0.75 cup of sugar until creamy, then add the egg yolks and beat until thick and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as necessary.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients until smooth. Add the orange juice and zest and stir until blended. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they foam, then sprinkles in the remaining 0.25 cup sugar while beating to soft peaks. Stir them thoroughly but as gently as possible into the batter.
4. Turn into the prepared pan and bake until a tooth-pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. let the cake cool.
5. Frost or glaze as you wish.

My experience:

1. There are several stages will be developed when you beat egg whites, the stage we are after is soft peaks. I read somewhere that whatever you do don't over do it! Otherwise there is no other solution than throwing everything away, which is quite a waste. I think I didn't beat it enough as there was some liquid bit left but that obviously didn't matter.

2. I read in another cooking cook that it is better to use confectioners' sugar, which is fine and will not destroy egg white foam. Sounds reasonable, uh? I didn't have any though so I just used raw sugar and that didn't hurt either!

3. I know this is not the healthiest recipe with 4 eggs and a whole cup of sugar. But it worths a try for special occasions, e.g. when you want to try your new mixer out, and the fragrance of cake baking alone worths the heath risk in my opinion!