Nada's Cake

I found this recipe on http://www.thym-thym.blogspot.com/. They adapted it from Jamie's Italy and it is absolutely delicious. Basically, it is an Italian Blueberry Olive Oil cake. I have never used olive oil in a cake recipe before so I was somewhat skeptical about it. What comes through more than anything is the flavor of the blueberries blended with the lemon and orange zest. It is very moist and fairly simple to make. The only thing I would add to this is a slight dusting of powder sugar on top next time. But that is just a matter of taste depending on how sweet you like your cake. This is not a sweet cake so I think most would enjoy it. This also tastes great the day you first bake it. You don't need to wait a day for the flavors to blend. This is great as soon as it has cooled down. This was gone by the next day (it was THAT good), but I don't think it would have kept much longer anyhow. Enjoy....and look for more berry recipes coming up in the future....I'm going to keep using them as long as they are in season!!!!

Nada's Cake

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour, sifted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

zest of 2 lemons

zest of 2 oranges

6 oz fresh blueberries (recipe states you can also use fresh black rasperries, or red sweet grapes such as Muscat or fragola

butter to grease pan

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9 inch pan and line the base with waxed paper. Set aside.

Either by hand or in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes, then add the melted butter, olive oil, milk, lemon and orange zest and vanilla. Mix well, then mix in flour, baking powder and salt until everything is thoroughly blended. Set aside for 10 minutes for the flour to absorb the liquid.

Stir in a quarter of the blueberries into the batter, pour into your prepared cake pan, and scatter the rest over the top. Bake the cake for 45 - 55 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Mine took about 1 hour to bake.)

Let it cool on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife along the sides of the pan to turn it out. (Don't forget to peel off the wax paper before placing it on your cake plate. I, of course, forgot to do this!!!!!)