Olive Oil, Clementine and Almond cake (egg-free)

This is one of the weirdest cakes I have ever made.  I adapted the recipe from an old little baking book I’ve had for over 10 years (called Baking by Emma Patmore).  I love this little book and have used it umpteen times over the years but admittedly the recipes are a bit hit and miss so you can never tell how they will turn out. 

However, this one, titled ‘Olive Oil, Fruit and Nut Cake’ attracted me because of the olive oil ingredient.  Something I have been wanting to try in a cake for a while now.  It also had no eggs which is maybe what made this batter so strange to handle.

Well, from the start I could tell that the 50g of sugar specified in the recipe would not make it sweet enough so I increased the amount and tweaked the amounts of the other ingredients to balance the recipe.

Maybe I shouldn’t have experimented with the recipe without trying it out in its original form first.  The batter was dough-like and oily and I was very close to just chucking this away.

I’m glad I persevered though and saw it through to being baked because it turned out to be a very tasty, dense, crusty cake with an amazingly gentle Clementine flavour.  I don’t know if it would work with any other citrus as even oranges are a little too sharp and despite the increase in sugar this still wasn’t a very sweet cake.

Very, very different from the usual light airy sponge, this cake doesn’t rise very much and looks almost raw in the middle and needs a dollop of cream on top, but I feel it has its own charm and I really enjoyed it.  I also loved the pairing of Clementine with almonds which is the second time I have tried it now after my Clementine and Clove Biscuits.

Anyway, it’s a good recipe to have if you have any friends or family who are allergic to eggs, although it’s not the best eggless recipe I have ever tasted.  That goes to a chocolate cake I made from Teawith Bea’s which I will make again soon I think.

Olive Oil, Clementine and Almond Cake (adapted from Baking by Emma Patmore)

·         250g plain flour

·         1 ½ tsp baking powder

·         75g caster sugar

·         6 Clementines, zest

·         50ml Clementine juice

·         75ml single cream

·         125ml olive oil

·         50g flaked almonds

Preheat the oven 200 C, prepare a 7” round cake tin.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir in the sugar.

Combine the Clementine juice, zest, single cream and oil together.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet.

Beat together until the flour and sugar is well incorporated into the wet ingredients.  I found I had to use an electric beater as beating by hand the oil wasn’t absorbing into the mixture very well.

Place the mixture into the tin and bake for at least 40 minutes and longer if needed.  If you find the cake is browning too much on top then add a foil cap about 30 minutes into baking.  When a skewer comes out without too much moisture on it, it is done.

Banana, Caramel and Chocolate Ganache Tart

Admittedly this wasn’t the prettiest of tarts I’ve had but God was it tasty!

I still have that problem of surplus shortcrust pastry in the freezer so this was another sweet way of using it up.

Please do not do what I did and cut the pastry before putting it into the oven.  The rolled out pastry should hang over the sides of the flan tin and this extra should be trimmed off after it has been baked because pastry does and will shrink in the oven.

I know this.  I really do but I still cut it. Why?  Because I’m greedy.  That’s why.  I wanted the extra bits of pastry to make into cheesy twists, that’s why.  And they were so nice and cheesy that it was worth it.  Almost.

Try not to trim the pastry until after it’s baked.  Unless you’re like me and can’t resist cheesy twists.

This is a very easy tart to make but as with most tarts, a bit ‘stagey’.  You have to blind bake the pastry first, allow it to cool slightly then pour in the ganache and allow it to set before you can start layering on the bananas and caramel. 

Everything came from a tub.  Including the caramel and even, I admit, the crème Chantilly which is something I make at home often as its one of the best ways to utilise a vanilla pod.  But again this was rushing against time as I was taking this over to a relative’s house for dessert after dinner.  In situations like that convenience wins every time for me.  But do be careful and mindful of my advice on the pastry, it should really be trimmed after being baked.

This tart is very satisfying with its combination of fresh bananas and luxurious chocolate.  I love the taste and smell of freshly sliced bananas, there is something so refreshing but sweet about it.  I deliberately made the ganache sweet by using half milk chocolate because the shortcrust pastry I was using was the unsweetened kind.  The ganache is also made with single cream which is why the ratio of chocolate needed to be more than the cream otherwise it just wouldn’t set very well.  There’s almost a saucy consistency to the ganache at room temperature which is why it is best to chill it well before adding the bananas.

Banana, Caramel and Chocolate Ganache Tart

·         500g shortcrust pastry

·         300ml single cream

·         200g dark chocolate

·         200g milk chocolate

·         2 bananas, chopped into slices diagonally

·         4 tbsp caramel, from a bottle or homemade (whatever you have to hand)

·         500g crème Chantilly, from a tub (or made by mixing together 500g double cream, one vanilla pod and 50g icing sugar)

Preheat oven to 200C, grease your tart tin.  I used a 14 x 4.5” (36 x 12cm) rectangular tin but you can also use a standard 9” round tin.

Roll the pastry out to roughly the shape of your tart tin.  Make sure it is not too thick, about 3-5mm is about ok and also try to make it consistently thick throughout.

Line your tart tin with the pastry, allow the extra pastry to ‘dangle’ over the edges of the tin but don’t trim to size just yet.  If the pastry is really excessively more than the tin and difficult to handle then cut it a little so that it is easier to manage. 

Prick the base all over with a fork.  Line with greaseproof paper or foil, fill with baking beans (or rice) and bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and foil and bake for another 15 minutes until done (remember that this is the only baking stage so make sure your pastry is properly done and not raw – if it needs another 10 minutes then bake it further).  Allow to cool.

Make the ganache by breaking up the chocolate into pieces and placing in a medium bowl, then bringing the single cream to just before a boil.  When you start to see the bubbles on the edge, take the cream off the heat and pour over the chocolate.  Leave for a minute to allow the cream to heat the chocolate.  Then, using a smaller whisk if you have one, gently start stirring the mixture from the middle.  Don’t use very large or vigorous motions just yet.  Let the chocolate and cream emulsify with gentle small circles, keeping to the middle of the bowl, before whisking properly.  Allow to cool slightly.

Pour the ganache into the pastry case and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours (I put mine in the freezer for about 40 minutes).

Slice the bananas and place them over the now set ganache.  Drizzle over the caramel, then spoon or pipe over the crème Chantilly.