“It took me four times to get this recipe down. Four friggin’ times. ”

That’s how Connie Thadewaldt’s launched into a recent blog post about her efforts to nail down a satisfactory cake made from extra virgin olive oil. She’s a CIA-trained culinary professional and her entertaining food blog is called Cook, a oui chef journal. Her cake is pictured here.

Thadewaldt has been “obsessed” with olive oil cake ever since she watched Michael Chiarello make one on Top Chef Masters. “Of course, I could’ve just used his recipe,” Thadewaldt writes. “But noooooo, I had to make things difficult and torture myself with this blasted project.”

Her goal was a cake that would be “dense but tender like a tea cake, and also have a hint of honey, buttermilk and some cornmeal, because I’m a sucker for cornbread.”

Thadewaldt finally settled on a single recipe after experimenting with four versions.

“I ended up with a very moist, tender and dense cake with a crunchy topping.  The texture is somewhat reminiscent of pound cake, though more rustic with the cornmeal,” she writes.

The cake is topped with a favorite of mine: Marcona almonds, which have been lightly toasted and chopped.

Thadewaldt’s recipe, by the way, is timely. We’ve come across numerous articles and posts about the virtues of olive oil cake. A New York magazine article even suggests olive oil cake could be the savior for that city’s coffee shops, where the food “lags behind” the coffee in the quality department.

Thanks to Connie Thadewaldt for sharing her olive oil cake.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

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