What on earth is a Bundt tin?
Topologically, half a torus
Ottolenghi’s Lemon, Bay Leaf and Olive Oil Cake
The Guardian newspaper had a regular column from Ottolenghi for many years. Just randomly searching for a cake recipe from him I came across this recipe. I have been trying to replace butter with olive oil in cakes for a while, so this was perfect. Extra bonuses were the fact I could get to use my new Bundt ( A Lidl bargain ) cake tin and get to use bay leaves straight from the back garden.
The ricotta used came from a 250g tub, so when the cake broke in two on coming out of the tin, I used it to seal the two halves back. (Actually used the remainder ricotta with double cream, lemon juice, icing sugar and 3 finely chopped up bay leaves)
Ingredients
150g ricotta 200 ml milk
280 g plain 00 flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
225 ml olive oil
350 g caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 bay leaves 4 lemon
Glaze: 350 g caster sugar ½ tsp olive oil 3 bay leaves
Sealant for emergencies:
100g ricotta
50 ml double cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
50g icing sugar 3 bay leaves
Method
Grease a 24cm Bundt cake tin.
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Whisk the milk, ricotta and two tablespoons of lemon juice. In a separate bowl sift the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb.
Put the sugar, chopped bay leaves and two tablespoons of lemon zest into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until the bay is finely chopped. (I found chopping the bay gave a finer result than my blades) Whisk up the eggs and bay leaf sugar on high speed until thick, pale and creamy. Drizzle in the oil on a slower speed. Add the flour and milk mixtures alternatively in small increments, starting and ending with the flour.
Pour into the bundt tin and sprinkle over two tablespoons of sugar. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Leave for 20 minutes and turn out on to a rack to cool.
Blitz up the icing sugar and bay leaves before adding the oil and the remaining lemon juice. Drizzle the glaze all over the cake, sprinkling with the remaining zest. Add a few bay leaves for decoration.
Note: my cake broke in two due to the bottom half sticking to the tin. I eased the top half out using a thin wooden spoon. To seal the two halves I used a creamy mixture of remaining ingredients. The result was so good I would recommend doing it deliberately. So just slice the cake in half, paste the mixture around and replace the top.
