Ingredients
Serves Serves 10 - 123 egg yolks
550 g castor sugar
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups milk
Grated rind of 2 lemons
Juice of 3 lemons
300 g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Pinch sea salt
5 egg whites
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease a 26 cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Whisk in olive oil, milk, lemon rind and lemon juice, mixing well to combine.
Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold dry ingredients into egg yolk and sugar mixture, then fold in beaten egg whites.
Pour cake mixture into prepared tin. Cook for 1¼ hours or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake.
Dust cake with icing sugar, if using, and serve with crème fraîche or whipped cream. It’s also great served with fruit - for example, oranges poached in caramel.
This is such a simple, pure flavoured cake with a lot of vitality. It may sink in the middle as it’s so moist, but this won’t affect the flavour.
From Tree to Table, Cooking with Australian Olive Oil by Patrice Newell, Lantern/ Penguin RRP: $59.95