BAKING WITH EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL.

London, March 23rd 2011.- Britain is starting to bake again, the familiar aromas, family recipes and traditional methods are making a return. But there’s one thing that us Brits are not familiar with – and that’s baking with extra virgin olive oil.  Our Mediterranean cousins on the other hand have been using this wonder olive oil in baking for centuries, to create the most delicious breads, cakes, biscuits and pastry. 

Extra virgin olive oil gives cakes and biscuits a rich and moist texture with a slightly fruity taste, without reducing the flavour of all of the other ingredients.  Using extra virgin olive oil in pastry gives a light and crunchy finish and it’s incredibly quick and easy to prepare, it also requires minimal kneading – so once mixed it’s ready to roll! 

But it’s not just the taste and difference in texture, the Mediterraneans use extra virgin olive oil to maintain a healthier lifestyle too. And, if that’s not enough, it contains vitamin E, which naturally helps to maintain the freshness of baked goods, so cakes and biscuits tend to stay fresh for longer.

Below is a recipe for lemon olive oil cake – it’s simple, it’s tasty and it's incredibly moreish....serve in slices, or as a dessert with scoops of clotted cream and a few fresh berries.

LEMON OLIVE OIL CAKE

Fabulous moist cake using olive oil instead of butter.  This is a great cake with a moreish fruity texture and fragrance from the olive oil.  This is flavoured with fresh lemon and filled with lemon curd.

Serves 8

275g/10oz caster sugar

3 medium eggs

Zest and juice of 1 ½ unwaxed lemons

120ml/4floz extra virgin olive oil

100ml/3 ½ floz milk

275g/10oz plain flour, sifted

1 level tbsp baking powder, sifted

1 pack fondant icing

Icing sugar for dusting

2 tbsp lemon curd

For decoration:

1 tbsp caster sugar

Zest of two unwaxed lemons

• Heat the oven to 180C/350F Gas 5.  Whisk sugar and eggs together until fluffy and pale.  Add lemon zest and juice.  Stir in olive oil and milk.  Fold in the flour and baking powder.  Line the bases of two 24cm/10in with parchment paper.  Carefully divide mix between the two tins and smooth over tops.

• Bake for around 45 minutes or until tops are firm and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.

• Roll out fondant thinly on a worktop dusted with icing sugar, then cut out a circle to fit the top of the cake. 

• For the decoration, place sugar and lemon zest in a pan and heat gently until sugar caramelises and coats zest.  Remove from pan and leave to cool and become crunchy.

• To assemble cake, spread one cake with lemon curd, generously.  Place other cake on top.  Finish with the circle of fondant icing, and perch the crunchy caramelised zest in the middle.

For further information please contact Bernie Fennerty at Food Matters. Tel: 0207 371 6466 or Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it