Port and Lemon Eggy Cake

—alix on April 2nd, 2008

desserts

Summary

Yield
Source	adapted from http://www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com/olive-oil-cake-recipe.html
Prep Time	2 hours
Kind of Dish	desserts

Description

A very light, olive oil based sponge cake

Ingredients

125 g plain flour
5 eggs
1 large lemon
200 g caster sugar
175 ml olive oil
150 g icing sugar
1 ds port

Instructions

Equipment needed:

1 24cm springform cake tin
Baking paper
A food processor
A grater/ lemon zester
Large mixing bowl
Wire rack

Preparation:

1. Oven at 180c/ gas 4/ 350f
2. Grease well a 24cm springform cake tin
3. Line base with baking paper, grease some more. Greasy!

Baking!

1. Zest the lemon.
2. Juice the lemon and set aside the juice.
3.. Mix the zest into the flour.
4. Separate 5 eggs. Set the whites aside.
5. Beat the egg yolks with 140g of the caster sugar. For best results use a food processor. Beat until the mix is pale yellow and very light in texture (the watchword for this recipe is 'fluffy'. Don't you forget it!)
6. Pour in the olive oil and the lemon juice and mix.
7. Lightly fold in the flour.

8. Wash the beaters from the food processor and the bowl, and make sure they are well dry before the next step (this is actually important, rather than just one of those dumb things recipe people say then it turns out it was just to save on washing up later on).
9. Put the 5 egg whites in the food processor, add a pinch of salt and whisk/ beat until soft peaks appear, like a tiny antarctic tundra.
10. Add the rest of the caster sugar and continue to whisk the mixture until you basically have meringue mix, ie firm peaks, like the breasts on a Barbie or like the fierce mountains at the South Pole that conceal who knows what strange and arcane sekrets.

11. Fold the egg white mix through the egg yolk mix, gradually, and gently, like you are coaxing a shy pony from a horsebox.

12. Pour into pan and bake for around 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from tin.

Icing!

1. Mix port with icing sugar until you have around 250ml. It should be the consistency of a White Russian cocktail.
2. Put the cooled cake onto a rack, so it is slightly raised from your kitchen work surface and place a tray or plate or whatever underneath it.
3. Pour the icing over the cake, making sure it soaks into the sides as well as the top. Repeat until evenly coated, by collecting the icing that runs off and reusing it.
4. EAT.