Lemon olive oil bundt cake

How is your long weekend? After much socializing  and catching up yesterday, I took it easy today, and baked a fabulous bundt cake: with a fruity olive oil, lemon zest (and extract) and some quinoa flour and almond milk. If it would not be for the eggs, it would be vegan. It is wonderfully light and flavorful, perfect for a potluck or picnic at the beach.

  

Lemon olive oil bundt cake

Ingredients (small cake, 6 cup pan)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1 ts baking powder
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup fruity extra virgin olive oil (like an Arbequina olive oil)
• 1/2 ts pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 ts lemon extract
• 3 free-range large eggs
• 1/2  cup almond milk
• Zest of 1 lemon

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the pan(s). Combine the flours and baking powder. Set aside.

Using a standmixer with the paddle attachment, beat the olive oil, cane sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon extract, and lemon zest in a large bowl until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, for ca 2 min for each egg. Add the almond milk.

Add half of the flour mixture and beat at low speed just until blended. Add the remaining flour, and mix in. Use a silicon spatula and scrape the batter into the pan(s).

Bake the tiny cake for ca 30min, and the small bundt cake for 1 hour, until cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan(s) on a rack for about 15 minutes. Then turn the cake right side up on a rack to cool completely.  

 

Glutenfree marbled cake

Over at Bea’s, she left us with a small marbled cake recipe before she travelled to Fance. Love her style of taking silicone molds with her on vacation to bake cakes. This time, she used it to make a small marbled cake, similar to my hazelnut cake a few weeks ago, but small, for the small family or the small occasion. Instead of a whole stick of butter, I only used a half stick and added instead a 1/2 cup of pre-cooked cannellini beans. You would never taste the difference. There was enough dough to make the small cake and 2 tiny individual cakes.

Small GF marbled cake with cannellinis:

• 1/2 stick (55 g) unsalted butter, soft 
• 1/2 cup cooked cannellini beans  (best home-cooked from dry w/o salt)
• 3/4 cup (100 g) millet flour
• 1/2 cup (60 g) quinoa flour
• 2 TB flax meal
• 1/2 cup (60 g) almond meal
• 1/2 TB  baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup (100 g) blond cane sugar
• 3 large organic free-range eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract
• 1 TB strohrum
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) buttermilk
• 1.5 tablespoons sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a small cake or cake mold or muffin pan. I use a small silicone mold (needs no spraying).

In a food processor, chop the butter and the beans to a soft mousse. Add to the bowl of a standmixer with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar, and whisk until both are well combined. Add 1 egg at a time, and mix in. Add the vanilla extract and the rum and buttermilk, and whisk well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, flax meal, almond meal, baking powder and salt, and mix through. Slowly add to the wet ingredients until well combined. Remove about 1/3 of the dough and mix with the cocoa powder. Fill 1/3 of the ‘white’ dough in the mold, add the chocolate dough and top with the remaining “white” dough. Bake for ca. 40min. Cool for 15 min and remove from mold. Eat!

White Bean Hazelnut Cake

The weather is rather abysmal, endless rain and cold, and so I did what I often do in bad weather: I baked a cake. Ever since I saw Joy’s luxurious white bean bundt cake I was intrigued. Cannellini beans in a cake? Sounds healthy and … interesting. I had chocolate fudge dessert in Korea that was made mostly with kidney beans, very little sugar, cacao and little much else, and it tasted just like chocolate fudge (without the sugar high). A cannellini bean cake must be like the blonde equivalent of it.

I added my own tweaks to the recipe, adding hazelnut flour and Justin maple almond butter.
I am not sure about the glaze yet. White would be good, but something not too sweet.
Here we go. 



Cannellini Bean Hazelnut Cake

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup hazelnut meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cannellini beans, cooked or from a can, drained and rinsed
• 2 TB unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)
• 2 TB Justin’s maple almond butter
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a bundt pan with baking spray and set aside.



In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and hazelnut flour.  Set aside.

Add beans and butter to a food processor.  Puree until beans and butter are a smooth puree.  In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the bean/butter mix, the cane and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until all ingredients are well incorporated, about 3-5 minutes.  Add the egg and eggwhite and the almond butter.  Beat in vanilla and almond extract (if using).

Stop the mixer and add half of the dry ingredients; mix in with a spoon then restart stand mixer again.  Beat until incorporated.  Add the buttermilk and mix until incorporated.  Again stop the stand mixer, add the remaining dry ingredients, mix in with a spoon and then mix them until incorporated.  

Spoon batter into prepared pan. 



Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake come out clean.   Remove the cake from the oven.  Allow to rest in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.



Think about a glaze while cake cools. 

This post needs a pretty cat photo. Unfortunately, my cats do not sit in bowls but Chanelle still will sit on anything that makes him look good.

Raincoast crisps

The heavens are gray and heavy, no rain yet but soon. A good day to stay inside, take care of things, and think about cakes to bake. Yesterday, I picked up a box of Lesley Stowe’s raincoast fig and olive crackers --- delightful. Now, I just have to figure out how to make them myself. Great with goat cheese and a glass of wine.

This one could be a good start.