Orange Olive Oil Ricotta Pound Cake

Cake in the house always make it feel like a special occasion.

This is a beautiful, moist and luscious cake. It has a smooth texture and it has a nice orange and vanilla flavour.

My friend Kim's mom would love this cake with a nice Turkish Coffee!

The recipe is from www.theoliveorchard.com who originally got it from the Giada De Laurentis  recipe on the food network. I like this recipe because The Olive Orchard has replaced some of the butter for their orange olive oil. I find olive oil in cakes makes for a very moist cake. I have often replaced some of the butter in cake recipes (especially when they call for melted butter) with olive oil with excellent results. I did not have any orange olive oil (although I have tried orange olive oil in the past and it is a wonderful  product) so I substituted with some orange extract that I put into the oil. Big Pete even ate it and he wouldn't eat a cheesecake of any kind if he was stranded on a deserted island and hungry. I told you the man has issues!

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not all purpose)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 a stick at room temperature)
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp orange olive oil or olive oil with 4 drops pure orange extract
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese (room temp) I used the whole container of ricotta.
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 tsp real vanilla
• 1 orange zest
• 2 tbsp Amaretto or 1 tsp almond extract
• powdered/icing sugar for dusting

Step 1: heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a  large 9 inch round cake pan or a bundt pan.

Step 2: zest orange

Step 3: sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Step 4: cream together butter, olive oil and orange extract. 

Step 5: add ricotta and sugar and beat until fluffy. Approx. 3 mins.

Step 6: add eggs one at a time, then orange zest, vanilla and amaretto 

Step 7: add the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time until just incorporated. Do not over mix.

Step 8 : pour into pan and bake approx 50 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean. Let rest 10 minutes in pan, then remove to cool on cooling rack.

Serve with orange sections, some powdered sugar on top or even some sweetened whipped cream.