A Delicious Option for Navel Oranges

Our Navel Orange tree is loaded down with fruit.  You can spot citrus trees all over the place around our area, whether they be oranges, tangerines, satsumas, etc.  I look around and I see so much fruit going to waste and I don't want to waste a single one of ours.  We'll eat them and juice them, but I was also looking for other ways to use the delicious fruit in new and inventive ways.

Our little navel orange tree loaded down

On the James Beard Foundation website, I found an interesting recipe from David Leite for Portuguese-Orange Olive Oil Cake.  The name captured my interest and I read a little more.  The author states:

 "When I lived in Lisbon, a few times a week, I'd trudge up the hill from my apartment and pop into Papas for breakfast, perhaps one of the tiniest restaurants in the city. It seats a mere eight people, and that includes two at the counter. If it wasn't open yet, for the Portuguese regard horários (schedules) as nothing more than polite suggestions, I'd wait. My go-to breakfast was this dessert cake. It's dense, moist, and deeply flavored, and, I'm not ashamed to say, the servers tended to have a generous hand when cutting slices."

This sounded like a great cake to try.  So we got started.  Here are the 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

We quickly assembled the minimal ingredients that the recipe called for and got busy.  Benjamin's job was to grate the zest of 3 of the four oranges he picked off the tree.  He promptly cut his knuckles with the zester and I had to tell him that the recipe didn't call for BLOOD oranges.  A band aid fixed him up and he continued zesting.

Benjamin is Zesting!

Next, you want to squeeze out the juice from the oranges until you have 1 1/2 cups of juice.  We poured the juice through a strainer to remove the seeds.

Laura is Juicing!

Now 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 3/4 teaspoons salt was whisked together and set aside.  Then the 5 eggs were beat with a mixer until combined and then the 3 cups sugar was poured in while mixing.  Our hens are only laying a couple eggs a day, so that was a good-sized investment.  The cake better be good!

Mixing it up

Once blended, the flour mixture and 1 1/2 cups olive oil are added and mixed until incorporated. Finally, pour in the orange juice and zest and continue until all is blended in to a nice creamy consistency.

The power of flour

We buttered a bundt pan and poured the rich batter into it.  You can really smell the 'citrusy' scent of the navel oranges.  If you look closely, you can see the orange tint and the little pieces of zest in the batter.

The batter matters...

We then place the cake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and allow to bake for one hour and 15 minutes.  Once it is done we remove to a wire rack to cool.

One interesting thing that the recipe states is this:  "Since this cake only gets better with age, don’t even think about taking a bite until the day after you make it, or even the day after that."  It was hard to be patient and follow this advice, but we did!

The cake is done!

After 24 hours, we put a pot of coffee on and finally cut the cake.  It was heavy and moist - sort of like a pound cake.  The flavor was off the charts!

Portuguese Orange-Olive Oil Cake

We retired to 'the parlor' and enjoyed good cake, a good cup of coffee, and good conversation.  We spent a good hour or so just reminiscing about good memories that we have.  It was a delightful afternoon.

A few components of a good afternoon

I think when the Good Lord deemed the Sabbath to be a day of rest, that this is what that was supposed to look like:

Day of Rest

So to sum up, the Portuguese Orange-Olive Oil cake will be added to our rotation. It is simple, yet delicious and the family awarded it the coveted 10 thumbs up award!