Apple Olive Oil Cake

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I am always on the lookout for new apple recipes that I can serve to our farmhouse guests since our farmhouse is called Il Casale di Mele (Mele meaning “apples”). Since I prefer to use olive oil in my baking rather than butter to keep things a little healthier whenever I can, when I came across an apple cake made with olive oil in Anna Del Conte’s Gastronomy of Italy I had to try it.

The cake was extremely stiff when mixed, and in fact seemed a little dry when I took it out of the oven. After a day in my cake keeper the cake was more moist as all those apples and the olive oil did their magic, but it just wasn’t the cake I had in mind. By the way, Anna’s book, Gastronomy of Italy is a cross between an Italian cuisine encyclopedia and an indepth Italian cookbook and I use mine often. I highly recommend it if you do not own it already.

I decided I needed to play with the ingredients a bit the next time I made the cake, which is something food bloggers find ourselves doing regularly. As a rule, I can’t help tweaking even the most perfect recipe, aways changing things around a bit to make the recipe more appealing to me personally, and this new “tweaked” version of apple olive oil cake turned out exactly how I wanted.

It was really moist, lighter than the first cake, and lightly flavored with cinnamon and ginger. For this new version, I added an extra egg, used brown sugar instead of white, added a little more olive oil, added some baking powder, and I used all-purpose flour in place of cake flour.

I also added a little fresh grated ginger which gave the cake a touch of brightness after it was baked. It is a really rustic, very moist cake, chock full of apples, and moistened with olive oil. I love this cake plain sliced alongside my morning cappuccino, but I can also serve it to company after dinner with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

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Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele

Apple Olive OIl Cake

Apple Olive OIl Cake

Yield: Serves 10 - 12
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 Cups All-purpose Flour
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 1 1/3 Cups Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 3 Large Eggs, At Room Temperature
  • 3/4 Teaspoon Grated Fresh Ginger
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Cup Golden Raisins
  • 4 Medium Apples, Peeled, Cored & Diced (About 3 Cups)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan.
  2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and powder, and salt.
  3. In another bowl, beat together the sugar and oil with a hand mixer until blended.
  4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each, then add the ginger and vanilla and mix.
  5. Add the dry mixture, and beat on low just until barely blended.
  6. Fold in the raisins and apples until mixed.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top.
  8. Bake the cake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
  9. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove the cake from the tin and cool to room temperature before slicing.

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14 Comments

  1. Hi there your recipes are always wonderful I would love to try this cake but t hey don’t have whole wheat pastry four or reg pastry flour where I live what other flour can I use tks peggy

  2. When I get your emails I get so excited. It feels like I am getting an email from a relative. I love your recipes and have made many of them. I will try your latest cake recipes., Thank you for loving cooking as much as I do. {*-*}

  3. Good evening 
    Thanks for all recipes you send really nice and delicious 
    I would like to ask if I could put half flour and half semolina 
    Thanks a lot

  4. I love recipes that bake with olive oil instead of other fats, thank you for that! I don’t know if you are in the US right now, but we are in an area of the US that is on “shelter in place” orders. I’m really enjoying browsing through your recipes and looking for things I can cook/bake while we are stuck at home. With so much time on my hands, I figure I may as well spend it trying out some new, healthy, delicious recipes, and yours look amazing! Thank you!!!

    I hope you are doing well wherever you are at the moment.

    PS – I hope I don’t annoy you with ongoing commenting as I spend much of my time looking/cooking through your recipes.

  5. I made this cake, but when I tested it with my metal cake tester, which tested the cake to be done, the cake began to sink in the middle after cooling for about 15 minutes. Ugh. I think I’m going back to testing with a wood toothpick. The metal cake tester has done this to me a couple of times now; they just don’t seem reliable. The cake bakes up so beautifully! I was so excited when I pulled it out of the oven with its beautiful golden color. I salvaged what I could and made some cinnamon icing to drizzle over the top of it. Yummm. Have you ever made it with walnuts? I thought about throwing in some walnuts, but decided against that because I wanted to follow the recipe as written the first time around, but the addition of walnuts sounds like it would be really good.

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