A Slightly Sweet Dessert

"What's for dessert, Honey?" James called to me a couple hours after dinner last night. I felt a lump in my throat. I didn't have much to offer. Today I had to set that situation right and whipped up an easy olive oil cake. It's not a particularly elaborate sweet. No layers, no fluffy icing, but it seemed a good compromise in my kitchen where I can barely turn around much less have two mixers going. And, much to my dismay I am still trying to figure out this oven and so anything too delicate seems like asking for trouble.

This is a recipe I grabbed from Michael Chiarello's stint on Top Chef Masters. Despite his questionable performance the "Napa style" chef's version of a maybe French maybe Italian dessert cake is easy, tasty, and not too sweet. For the batter I mixed 3 eggs with 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Then I added in 1 1/2 cups each of milk and olive oil and the zest of 3 oranges. To the smooth liquid I stirred in 2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp each of baking powder and soda, an a pinch of salt. I poured the batter into a 12 inch pan and baked the dessert at 350º for about an hour.

"When is that cake going to be ready, honey?"