Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

I got the idea from this recipe after watching a Nigella show. She’s always so colorful when she’s cooking that invites me to make every single one of her recipes… But there are more Nigella recipes than I have time! So, I picked another chocolate one (first one was the Triple Threat Chocolate Cookies) and the cake did not disappoint. In fact, it didn’t last a week!

For serving this Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, I’d recommend a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream. The cake is light and fluffy, not too sweet or too chocolatey. If you want it more Chocolate dense, increase the chocolate to 1/2 cup of cocoa powder.

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Recipe By: Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

2/3 up olive oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Grease your springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the all-purpose flour with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the all-purpose flour mixture. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

Vanilla Mug Cake

Even though I always was thinking that “baking” in the microwave is wrong, curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to try a mug cake recipe… So, it was a quiet Saturday with my parents, and grandma coming over for lunch. I decided to try to “bake” this quick dessert so we would all share this not-so small mug cake. Just by looking at the amount of batter, it was clear that the result would be too much to be a one person dessert. I strongly recommend using two ramekins or a very large mug to bake it in. The mug used here, is one that I often use for soups.

Since I just couldn’t let the recipe sit unaltered, I made a a little update to the recipe: I substituted the vanilla extract from the original recipe with vanilla beans. It makes it so much better! Even grandma (who was more than skeptical about baking in the microwave) agreed it was a nice quick cake that tasted good… for emergencies! (her words not mine ). All around, this is a quick no-fuss dessert that will make that craving for something sweet go away. Definitely a cake to share and to eat right away. We found that if we let the cake sit for more than 30 minutes it gets tough and hard, so better eat it while warm.

To dress it up, you can top each mug with sliced strawberries and some whipped cram. Or drizzle with chocolate syrup.

Kitty

Vanilla Mug Cake

Adapted from Yellow Cake in a Mug from Group Recipes
3 Servings

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
⅛ teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon vanilla beans
1 large mug

Instructions:

Add the dry ingredients to the cup and stir together.
Stir in the egg, water, oil and extract of choice.
Microwave for 3 minutes (1000 watts).
The cake should rise to the top of the mug.
Allow to cool a little and turn out onto a plate.

Vanilla Bean Glazed Bundt Cake

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to take my sweet time to cook or bake for the blog. I traveled to DC and NY for an extremely short week, but I still managed to take mom to Saratoga and visit Jake and his family. We had a blast. Then, we came back to Guate to get ready for my grandmother’s birthday bash: She turned 90! She’s always been and will be an inspiration to me! I was a lucky little girl: I got to enjoy my grandparents, sleep overs and all. So, since it was a big party we had family from Mexico and the US fly down to visit. This last sunday was the last day we had our family from Mexico here, so the day after I was able to get some good time in the kitchen!

One of my must-have stops any time I travel to the US is Williams-Sonoma. And of course, this time was no different. Even with Helga we knew it was going to the store so we decided that we both were restocking our pantries with Ground Tahitian Vanilla Bean and French Lavender. I did forget to get Espresso Powder and Royal Rose Syrup since I didn’t have it in my shopping list!, but they are already there for my next trip.

So, what else could be more fit than to put to good use my precious Vanilla from Williams-Sonoma? I have been eying this recipe since it was first posted back in March 2011. Make sure that you let the cake cool down for at least an hour in the pan. It comes out easy! This is a great mid-afternoon cake or breakfast cake even. It’s flavor is nice and subtle!

Vanilla Bean Glazed Bundt Cake

Recipe adapted from Sweetapolita

Yield: 1 Bundt Cake, about 14 servings

Ingredients Bundt Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla seeds or seeds from 2 vanilla beans
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess.
Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Beat together butter and sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy(about 5 minutes). Scrape seeds from vanilla beans with tip of a paring knife and add into butter mixture, reserving pods for another use, and beat until well combined (about 1 minute).
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in lemon extract until well combined.
At low speed, add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
Spoon batter into pan, smoothing and spreading evenly. Gently tap pan on counter to eliminate air bubbles.
Bake for about an hour, until the tip of a knife or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
Cool in pan 1 hour, then invert onto a rack and cool completely, about 1 hour more.

Ingredients Vanilla Bean Glaze

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean seeds
2-3 tablespoons whole milk
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Scrape the vanilla been seeds into whole milk. Let sit in a spouted container, for about an hour.
Add confectioners’ sugar gradually, whisking, until you get desired consistency–about 1 cup. You want to make sure that it’s not too runny, or it won’t dry white on the cake, and will run off too quickly. It should take a few seconds to whisk it, and it will feel too thick at first–keep whisking until you get desired thickness. If too thick, add a teaspoon or so of the vanilla milk.
Once the cake has cooled, drizzle glaze over top.