Olive Oil and Quince Paste Madeira Cake

, from Issue #20. August, 2015
Photography by Aaron McLean.
Olive Oil and Quince Paste Madeira Cake

INGREDIENTS

finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
150 grams caster sugar
1½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
150 ml light olive oil
3 eggs
juice of 1 orange
150 grams firm quince paste, diced

To serve
icing sugar slices of fresh orange
mascarpone or ricotta

METHOD

Grease and line a 4 cup capacity loaf tin with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Put the lemon and orange zests and the caster sugar in a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips. This infuses the sugar with the citrus oils.

Stir in the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.

Whisk the olive oil, eggs and orange juice together and beat into the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter.

Spoon a third of the batter into the loaf tin and scatter over a third of the quince paste. Repeat with another third of the batter and quince and top with the remaining cake mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes then dot the remaining quince paste over the top. Layering the quince paste should give you pockets of it throughout the cake.

Bake for a further 30 minutes or until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.

To serve: Dust the top with icing sugar and cut into slices. Serve with slices of fresh orange and a dollop of mascarpone or ricotta.

The cake will keep for a week in an airtight container. Makes 1 cake