Orange Flavoured Olive Oil Cake

There's just something about citrus flavoured cakes that does it for me. Ahhh, a slice of an orangey-lemoney-tangeriney cake and a cup of tea....bliss. Here's a moist and dense cake with lovely orange tones.

Add to that, if the cake doesn't call for butter , then I'm all for it in leaps and bounds. Disregard the fact that I can subsist on junk like hot dogs and Doritos alone for an entire day, but remove butter from my baking and sub with olive oil and I'm suddenly Ms.Healthy -"It's made with EVOO, you know" - I condescendingly snark to others, as I fit (read CRAM) another slice into my mouth.

I found this recipe on a happy blog hopping day on more than burnt toast, and is originally from Anna Olson who hosts her own show on Food Network Canada. I didn't have enough oranges as the original recipe called for, so I substituted fresh orange juice instead.

You will want to break out the good stuff for the oil, the taste of the EVOO is quite prominent in the cake.

Recipe - adapted from Food Network Cananda - (Anna Olson's Orange Olive Oil Cake)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup 2 %milk
zest of 2 oranges or tangerines (I used zest of 1 orange + 3 Tbsp fresh orange juice)
1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
dash salt
icing sugar for dusting

1.Preheat oven to 350 °F and butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2.In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar. Add olive oil, milk and orange zest (and juice, if using) and mix well. In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to olive oil batter and stir just until smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
3.Let cake cool completely, then turn out onto a plate and dust with icing sugar.