Orange Olive Oil Bizcocho

Bizcocho is the king of Spanish meriendas or afternoon snacks. Similar to a genoise the basic recipe is composed of eggs, sugar and flour. The advent of individual yogurt pots made it a household staple when women shared a recipe based on the yogurt pot measurement. This same cake is popular in France and Italy with different slight variations.

I like the sweet and slightly bitter combination of adding a whole pureed orange, the tanginess of the yogurt, along with the moisture that the olive oil provides. This is an enormously popular recipe in Spain where it is often baked in a loaf tin. You can replace the oil for vegetable oil but I use late harvest extra virgin olive oil, because the pepperiness offsets the sweetness. Late harvest is normally what you buy in the supermarket as opposed to fancy estate bottled evoo for which the olives are harvested much earlier in November.

Feel free to replace the orange for a combination of orange and lemon or orange and preserved lemon or any citrus fruit you have floating around the kitchen.

Bizcocho is the king of Spanish meriendas or afternoon snacks

Orange Olive Oil Bizcocho

250 g sugar

1 orange, cut in quarters

3 eggs

125g plain yogurt

100g extra virgin olive oil

250g plain flour

15g baking powder

1 pinch of salt

3 tsp. baking powder

Put the orange in a blender and transfer the pulp to a bowl. Preheat oven to 180 degreesIn a large bowl, add the eggs and beat with electric whisk until combined. Add the sugar and continue whisking until the mixture is thick and the colour has turned paler. Take the bowl off the mixer. Add the yogurt, flour, baking powder and salt and gently mix with enveloping movements. Add the orange pulp and stir in with a folding motion. Spray a bundt cake tin with a non-stick spray (if not using a bundt use a 25cm spring form tin and line with baking paper, making sure the paper is at least two fingers taller than the tin. Fill the mould with the cake mixture. Place the mould in the oven preheated to 170ºC for about 45-50 minutes.

Bundt tins are a great investment but you run more risks than using a normal spring form tin. I do like the look of this bizcocho wrapped in baking paper.

Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and unmould very carefully. Dust with icing sugar.

Serve the orange cake as is or with a chocolate sauce or chocolate caliente (Spanish drinking chocolate)