ORANGE OLIVE OIL CAKE

I will be making this cake again, for sure! When I saw this recipe calls for EVOO instead of butter, I bookmarked it pronto! Anna Olson's recipes can't go wrong. Check out her Blueberry Muffins on my August post, another great healthy recipe.

Light, moist and citrusy - unbelievably good! You just have to try it.

Ingredients

by Anna Olson

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar (I used 1 cup + 1 Tbsp)
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup 2 %milk
zest of 2 oranges or tangerines
1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 °F and butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar. Add olive oil, milk and orange zest 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.

Let cake cool completely, then turn out onto a plate and dust with icing sugar

DUTCH APPLE CAKE

This is the easiest cake I have made so far. All you need is a fork and mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. How easy is that!

This cake is moist and loaded with apple goodness. The cake texture tastes like gingerbread - that's what I thought! However, I am not going to stop at this one but will try out different recipes.

Ingredients

adapted from recipe4living

4 C. apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I cut into small chunks instead)
2 C. flour
2 C. sugar (I used 1 C. caster sugar and 1/2 C brown sugar - I ran out of caster sugar!)
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C. oil
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C. chopped nuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, break eggs over apples. Mix with fork and add sugar and dry ingredients. Add oil, vanilla and nuts. Fold gently until blended.

Spoon into a 13x9-inch greased and floured baking pan. (I used a round cake pan instead)

Bake for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

CARROT MUFFINS

After my successful attempt on Anna's Blueberry Muffins (baked twice in fact!), I was in the mood for healthy muffins again.

I found this recipe by Patricia Scarpin of Technicolor Kitchen. She takes excellent pictures, which makes me want to bake all her recipes.



Ingredients

fully adapted by Technicolor Kitchen

2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (162g) caster sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup (260g) plain yogurt
2 eggs
½ cup (120ml) vegetable oil
finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 ½ cups (135g) grated carrot
icing sugar, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line twelve ½-cup (120ml) capacity muffin pans with paper cases.
Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and salt and stir to combine. Set aside.
Place the yogurt, eggs, oil and lemon zest in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the yogurt mixture and carrot to the flour mixture and whisk just until combined – use a fork to mix and do not overmix; the batter is supposed to be lumpy.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer.
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

Makes 12 – I used 1/3-cup (80ml) muffin pans and got 12, too