Olive oil cake - pick your region of choice

Annalena is sure that at least some of you have decided that olive oil has become as complicated as wine.  Olive oil tastings?  Blindfold tastings?  VINTAGES?  Words like "woody, oakey, fruit notes,  pepper," etc are all over the bloody place.  And of course, we look to ORIGINS as well.  One would think that you do not have a proper household unless you have a bottle of olive oil from every single region of Italy.  For now, as far as Annalena knows, we do not see regional affiliations for Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, or other olive oils, but let us face it:  it is only a matter of time.

So what does the cook do?  Well, after many  MANY years and many MANY bottles of oil, Annalena has come to a conclusion and she commends it to you.  She has two types of olive oil in her home. Both are extra virgin.  The one she uses for cooking comes from California. The one she uses to dress vegetables and salads, her "finishing" oil, so to speak, is from Umbria.  There is a taste difference, and that is what things come down to with olive oil.  There is no right or wrong:  there is only what you like.   For example, her handsome pal Adam prefers the California oil for his salads, etc.  That does not make him wrong, it just means he tastes the oils differently than does Annalena, or the Guyman for that reason.  So, taste, sample, ask questions  and settle on what you like.  Plan to spend some money, but as Annalena has said before:  a bottle of olive oil costs less than a bottle of wine, and lasts longer, especially around her house.

These preparatory remarks result from a recipe which Annalena found, for LIGURIAN olive oil cake (emphasis in the original).  The recipe was very clear:  you HAD to use LIGURIAN olive oil, because of its' buttery flavor.

Well, Annalena has been to Liguria, and she remembers the olive oil.  Buttery is not something that comes to mind, although she certainly did love the olive oil.  And as noted above, she does not have Ligurian olive oil in the house, and she was not going to trek outside, in plus 90 degree weather to look for a bottle of Ligurian olive oil, when she had perfectly good Umbrian olive oil in the house.

So, ragazzi, if you want to make this - and you DO want to make this - use the olive oil you have and you like. It's a very easy cake , and it's very soft and surprisingly light.  And Annalena shall tell you why it is so light.

You start with a stick of melted unsalted butter.  Yes, butter.  We are putting butter and olive oil in this cake.  Then, 2 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour.  As soon as you measure out those two cups,  take a quarter cup out and put it to the side.    Add a half tablespoon (also known as 1.5 teaspoons) of baking powder to the large armount of flour and a pinch of salt.

Measure out a quarter cup of milk, and add that to the melted butter.  Now, add 3/4 cup of your olive oil of choice, and mix this well.    Again, put it to the side.  Take a bit of it, with a brush, or a paper towel, and grease a ten inch pan.  Annalena has a spring form, and that worked beautifully.  If all you have is a 9 inch pan, use it, but be ready for overflow.

Now, we start making the cake. Put four large eggs, a cup of sugar, and the grated zest of two citrus fruit of choice, into a big mixing bowl.  Using a whisk attachment, get to work, and let it go for a long time- at least 5 minutes.  Watch what happens.  The eggs will billow up into a very pale yellow mass.  This is essentially how you make genoise, and it is what is going to make your cake very light:  the air you mix in with the eggs, taken with the structure afforded  by the yolk, and you have a nice tower of cake when you're done.

Add half the flour mixture to this egg mixture and fold it in well.  Now add the oil/butter milk mixture, all of it, and combine that.   Finally, add the remaining flour.  Fold that in.

Remember that quarter cup of flour?  Now pour that into your greased pan, and shake it around, to coat the whole pan.  Pour in your  batter, and put the thing in the oven at 350, for 30 minutes.

This cake stays fairly moist, so if you use the "straw in the middle "test,  you may feel that it's undercooked.  Unless it truly looks liquid, you're ok if the top of the cake has browned well.

All of the fat in this cake makes it fairly resistant to staling, so don't refrigerate it.  It will keep at least three days, especially if you cover it after you've cut and eaten some of it.

It's delicious gang.  Serve it with some poached fruit and some ice cream.  Annalena plans to do that this week as she brings over one of, if not the, handsomest married couple she knows.  And they are straight, ragazzi