This olive oil based cake is very moist and full of flavors, but make sure to use a mild olive oil.
This cake has so many qualities: it’s gluten free, kosher for Passover (for those who eat legume, kitniyot, in Hebrew) and parve (without the labneh cream on top.)
The cake is better served a day after it’s baked.
Orange, polenta and olive oil cake
Course: Cakes and cookiesCuisine: Israeli, ItalianDifficulty: EasyYields
10
inch cakePrep time
30
minutesBaking time
45
minutesTotal time
1
hour15
minutesINGREDIENTS
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 medium sized orange
1 cup mild olive oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
1½ cups polenta (regular or instant are both fine. Not the precooked polenta!)
7 oz. ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder (kosher for Passover powder, if baking during the holiday)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
- For the Labneh cream (optional, this will make the cake dairy and not parve)
1 cup heavy cream, cold
⅓ cup sugar
½ lb. labneh, lightly beaten with a fork
DIRECTIONS
- Oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 10” springform pan with a cooking spray.
- Whisk eggs and sugar in a stand mixer for 10 minutes, until they tripled in volume and become pale yellow.
- In the meantime wash the skin of the orange, cut the orange into eighths (skin included, do not peel the orange) and rid of any seeds. Put orange in a food processor and mix for a chunky consistency. Put in a bowl and add the olive oil and almond extract.
- In a second bowl mix polenta, ground almonds, baking powder and ground cardamom.
- Lower the speed of the mixer and alternate adding the dry ingredients and the orange-olive oil mixture into the eggs, finishing with the dry ingredients.
- Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown on top and sides and still moist in the center. Cool on a cooling rack. Cover lightly with aluminum foil and serve the day after.
- Before serving, make the labneh cream (optional)
- Put cold heavy cream in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk and whisk on medium-high speed. Add sugar as you start and whisk and continue until cream has doubled its volume, but still very soft. Stop the mixer and add labneh, then continue to whisk just until cream is stable. Remove from mixer.
- Serve the cake with a nice dollop of the cream on the side.
Are you supposed to cook the instant polenta before adding it?
No need to cook the polenta! Just mix in to the batter. Enjoy!
I tried baking this but it was completely raw inside following the instructions for 45 minutes at 325. Do you cool in the pan? The batter oozed out when I removed the spring from the pan. advice?
The cake does stay a bit soft in the center, but should definitely not spread completely to the sides when the springform is removed. In any case, leave in the spring form until the cake completely cools down, for at least a couple of hours. But it sounds like in this case the cake was not fully baked. It should be a little soft in the center when you gently touch with with your finger, but not raw. Can you put it back in the oven and try to bake again for 10-15 minutes longer, or until firmer? No two ovens are equal, so that may cause the change in results.
I also was unsure about taking it out of the pan. So I didn’t. I’ll let you know how it turned out…pun intended!