Olive Oil-Orange Pound Cake

Hello Friends.

You'll be seeing a lot of me on here as Kate is busy finishing up her last semester of school for her MSW.  keep it up, kk.  you're a rock star. 

So I would like to preface this entire blog (a little late I know, but work with me) by saying that Kate and I are recent foodies, just diving in to this fascinating culinary world.  There are many things we make up (such as kate's mexican creation post) but there are many things we have to get inspiration for.  That inspiration comes from cook books, recipes in magazines (that I unashamedly steal out of magazines from doctor's offices, magazines at the gym, etc), and websites.  I'd venture to say that outside of foodnetwork.com, bhg.com, and cookinglight.com, our fav go-to lady is none other than thepioneerwoman.com.  Ok, just had to explain all that before I get on with the post.  I found this on her site from ANOTHER blog she follows and it looked too good NOT to try.  It's a Portuguese guy (from what I gather- I was on the site very quickly- just to get this recipe) and I had never heard of anything like this, so, without further ado, the Olive Oil Orange Pound Cake from http://leitesculinaria.com:

Ingredients

• Nonstick baking spray with flour
• 4 to 5 large navel oranges
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 5 large eggs
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups mild extra-virgin olive oil
• Confectioners’ sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

•  Position a rack in the middle of the oven, remove any racks above, and crank up the heat to 350°F (175°C). Coat a 12-cup Bundt or tube pan with baking spray and set aside.

• Finely grate the zest of 3 of the oranges, then squeeze 4 of them. You should have 1 1/2 cups of juice; if not, squeeze the 5th orange. Set aside.

•  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

•  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand held mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs on medium-high speed until well-combined, about 1 minute. Slowly pour in the granulated sugar and continue beating until thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. On low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and oil, starting and ending with the flour, and beat until just a few wisps of flour remain. Pour in the orange juice and zest and whirl for a few seconds to bring the batter together.

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, about 1 1/4 hours. If the top is browning too much as the cake bakes, cover lightly with foil. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes.

•  Turn the cake out onto the rack and cool completely, then place it in a covered cake stand and let it sit overnight. Just before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

look at that delectable orange zest in there.  this cake is truly, truly delicious in every way.  so moist, so light (did you notice there's no butter??) and so refreshing.  a perfect go-to if you need to bring something somewhere and you're not feeling chocolate.  i bet you could even substitute the orange with some lemon or grapefruit or lime for other variations.  however you make it, you need to try this cake.  it's DELISH and a half.