Olive Oil Cake with Candied Orange Slices

Another bon appetit recipe... Yes, I do get recipes elsewhere, but so many from bon appetit have looked or sounded really good lately. Aside from the time it takes to candy the oranges, this is a relatively easy and quick cake. I actually got the candied orange going and then made the cake batter while the orange slices candied. I just made sure to stir the orange slices every few minutes.

The flavor of the cake sounds a little strange, but it's a very moist and delicious cake. I can't even taste the olive oil in it. I mostly tasted the cardamom and orange flavors. The only significant change I made to the recipe was using ground cardamom instead of the cardamom pods for the candied oranges. We were out of the pods but had plenty of ground cardamom.

The recipe is available on the bon appetit website. Here's how I made it with that slight change in the form of cardamom for the candied orange:

candied orange and syrup

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup orange blossom honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 small orange, thinly sliced

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring sugar, honey, cardamom, and 3 cups water to a boil in a medium heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add orange slices. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, turning orange slices occasionally, until tender and syrup is reduced to about 3 cups, about 40 minutes. Arrange orange slices in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Strain syrup.

Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover syrup and orange slices separately; chill. Return orange slices to room temperature and rewarm syrup slightly before using.

cake

1/2 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
zest from 2 oranges
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chopped pistachios, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°. Brush 9-inch springform pan with oil. Whisk both flours and next 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup oil in a large bowl for 1 minute. Beat in egg yolks, then flour mixture. Beat in yogurt, orange zest, and vanilla. Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar until firm peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter just to blend in 2 additions. Transfer to prepared pan; smooth top.

Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Pierce hot cake all over with a skewer. Slowly drizzle 3/4 cup warm syrup all over. When syrup is absorbed, slowly pour 3/4 cup more syrup over. Reserve remaining syrup for serving (optional). Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack. Run a thin knife around edge of pan to release cake. Remove pan sides. Arrange candied orange slices over. Sprinkle pistachios over. Cut into wedges and serve.

We found that the cake was so moist that it didn't need more syrup, so I added optional in parentheses above. The syrup is tasty and I did save it. We'll probably use it on vanilla ice cream.