If you’ve gone olive your life without ever trying an olive oil cake, you’re seriously missing out. Olive oil cakes are round, super moist, one-layer Italian cakes made with olive oil. These cakes are so popular because they are really easy to make and you don’t have to fuss with frosting, icing, or glazing them. Plus, they are delicious.
What is the origin of the olive oil cake?
Olive oil cake was first baked in the Mediterranean, where olive oil trees are grown in abundance. The ancient Greeks and Romans have been using olive oil in their cooking and baking for centuries. Olive oil cakes are often served at Christmas, but they are the perfect year-round dessert too.
What is the difference between olive oil cake and regular cake?
The difference between olive oil cake and regular cake is the fat used in each recipe. Many traditional cake recipes include butter, which yields a denser cake and a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Olive oil cakes are moist and sponge-like, yielding a lighter cake that is never dry.
What does an olive oil cake taste like?
Olive oil cake tastes like a moist, plain cake with a soft crumb. This cake is light and has a tender texture. Olive oil itself has a subtle fruit flavor and its flavor profile is influenced by the quality of olive oil and where the olive oil is sourced. Using different olive oils will make the flavor of each olive oil cake unique.
Olive oil cake will also taste like whatever flavor is added to it. Olive oil cake is often flavored with lemon or orange zest, herbs like cardamom, spice like fennel pollen, or nuts like pistachios, which enhance the olive oil’s and cake’s flavors.
Why is olive oil cake so moist?
Olive oil cake is so moist because of the use of olive oil. Olive oil retains its liquid form even after the cake has cooled whereas butter has a tendency to solidify. When cakes are made with oil instead of butter, they have a smoother texture because olive oil is high in fat. Plus, olive oil cakes last longer because oil delays the process of the cake going stale.
Are olive oil cakes healthier?
Olive oil cakes are healthier, but olive oil cake, like other cakes, isn’t a healthy food. After all, you’re still eating cake, which contains milk, sugar, and, oftentimes, eggs. Olive oil cakes are often served unfrosted, but may be topped with powdered sugar, which has fewer calories.
Butter is often substituted with olive oil in many recipes, including olive oil cake, to enhance the flavor and texture and to make them healthier. Olive oil has various health benefits, including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. Most of the fats in olive oil are monounsaturated fatty acids, which are known to increase levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL) and lower “bad” cholesterol (LDL).
L’Artusi Signature Olive Oil Cake
New York City trattoria L’Artusi has been a West Village favorite since opening in 2008. Chef Joe Vigorito’s team is known for their Italian pastas and their Signature Olive Oil Cake.
Each 8-in. cake is made with flour and Sicilian olive oil and served with whipped crème fraîche and marinated golden raisins. This package serves 6 and comes with everything you need to create the L’Artusi experience at home or on the go.
Settepani Restaurant & Bakery’s Olive Oil Cake
Each Italian treat made at New York City’s Settepani Restaurant & Bakery is made with organic ingredients. Italian-born chef Nino Settepani first opened Settepani in Williamsburg in Brooklyn in 1992 and added a Harlem location in 2000.
Settepani’s 10-in. Olive Oil Cake is simply amazing on its own or with fresh whipped cream and berries. What sets Settepani’s Olive Oil Cake apart is the nutty and fruity flavor that comes from the extra virgin Partanna Sicilian Olive Oil used in each cake along with butter, eggs, flour, lemon, orange, milk, sugar, and salt.
This article originally appeared on Goldbelly.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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Sponge Cake vs. Angel Food Cake vs. Pound Cake: Do You Really Know How They’re Different?
When mid-afternoon hunger strikes and we’re ready for tea time or a coffee break, we can’t resist a slice — or two — of cake. Whether it’s layer cakes, sponge cake, or pound cake, we’ve never had a cake we don’t like. But have you ever wondered what the differences are between sponge cake vs angel food cake vs pound cake? We have.
Sponge cake and angel food cake are non-yeasted cakes made with eggs, flour, and sugar. These cakes tend to have fewer calories than traditional cakes and pound cakes because they aren’t made with butter. Pound cake is a rich, buttery cake made with the same ingredients plus butter. The ingredients are the only thing that make each cake unique.
No matter how these delicious cakes are made, biting into them bakes our day. We take a slice at explaining the difference between sponge cake, angel food cake, and pound cake.
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No, angel food cake and pound cake are not the same thing. Angel food cake is made with egg whites, flour, and sugar. Pound cake is made with butter, eggs, flour, and sugar.
Cloud-like angel food cake has no fat and no cholesterol. Angel food cake originated in the United States in the 19th-century. Its name is believed to come from the foam cake’s lightness — so light that angels could eat it without being weighed down. Contrast this with buttery pound cake, which is heavy and calorie dense.
Pound cake is named for the amount of each of its four ingredients: butter, eggs, flour, and sugar. The loaf-shaped bread originated in Northern Europe in the mid-18th century. Pound cake has a rich, buttery taste.
Both cakes come in a variety of flavors like Weimar, Texas’ Gladys’ Bakery‘s Lemon Angel Food Cake and Strawberry Angel Food Cake, Maspeth, New York’s Grandpa’s Original Morrisons Pastry‘s Iced Lemon Loaf, Marble Yogurt Loaf, and Pumpkin Yogurt Loaf, and Tyler, Texas’ Janie’s Cakes‘ Berry Jane Pound Cake, Italian Jane Pound Cake, and Red Velvet Jane Pound Cake.
Grandpa’s Original Morrisons Pastry
No, angel food cake and sponge cake are not the same thing. Angel food cake is a type of sponge cake. The difference between angel food cake and sponge cake is that angel food cake is made with egg whites and sponge cake is made with egg whites and egg yolks. Both angel food cake and sponge cake are delicate cakes that each have a subtle flavor.
Sponge cake was first made in Spain during the Renaissance. Many countries around the world have their own versions of sponge cake, including British Victoria sponge, Filippino mamón, and Japanese castella.
Sponge cake is the foundational recipe for many popular desserts like madeleines, ladyfingers, and strawberry shortcake. Famous examples of sponge cake are Hostess Snacks’ Twinkie, Boston’s Omni Parker House Hotel‘s Boston Cream Pie, and Philadelphia’s TastyKake’s Krimpets.
Like sponge cake, angel food cake does not contain butter. Angel food cake is leavened with egg whites and baking powder. Angel food cake is delicate and baked in an ungreased tube pan to help it rise. This foam cake is inverted when it is cooled to keep it from collapsing.
Omni Parker House Hotel Boston Cream Pie
The cake that is similar to sponge cake is angel food cake. Sponge cake and angel food cake are made with eggs, flour, and sugar. The only difference between the cakes is the part of the egg used. Angel food cake only has egg whites and sponge cake has egg whites and egg yolks.
Angel food cake is lighter than sponge cake because it isn’t made with egg yolks. Both have a mild flavor although some sponge cake recipes include a flavor like Los Angeles’ Valerie Confections‘ Blum’s Coffee Crunch Cake with two layers of sponge cake slathered with coffee whipped cream frosting and New York City’s Veniero’s Red Velvet Cake with 3 layers of red velvet sponge cake topped with cream cheese frosting.
Veniero
Sponge cake is better for making strawberry shortcake because sponge cake easily soaks up the flavor of fresh strawberries. Traditional strawberry shortcake is made with shortcake, a crumbly cake made with butter. However, many home chefs find it more convenient to make strawberry shortcake with delicate sponge cake.
Pound cake is also used to make strawberry shortcake. You really can’t go wrong when pairing strawberries and cream with cake, so pick your favorite and enjoy!
This article originally appeared on Goldbelly.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
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