Apples and oranges

This week San Francisco has the joy of hosting the lovely Julie! When people are in town, I find it is nice to bake for them. Some may argue that I will use any excuse to bake. This is true, but some reasons are more inspiring than others, and the arrival of the Best Roommate Ever certainly warrants a special baked good. By definition, "special" means anything that isn't a chocolate chip cookie. "Best Roommate Ever special" means cake. I had the luxury of being at the parental home when this baking moment struck, allowing the cake to be elevated to a new level of rarity: cake with fruit.

"Cake with fruit" is not to be confused with the highly contentious "fruitcake." (I was able to concoct a fruitcake-like dessert last week that was far from horrific, but generally speaking the name does not evoke a celebratory palate in my mind.) Cake with fruit is a similarly challenging concept. It is, generally speaking, my philosophy that fruit has no place in dessert (I know, I know. Healthy blah blah). Every now and then, however, a certain fruit/sugar + flour proportion makes for a sufficiently enticing baked good. In this instance, access to an abundance of oranges led me to a recipe entitled "Easy Orange Cake." If there is one word I love more than the word "cake," it is, you guessed it, "easy." I adjusted the recipe slightly just because. Haters can cry in the corner.

Best Roommate Orange Cake
adapted from "Moroccan Orange Cake"

* 4 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 2 cups flour
* 4 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup orange juice
* zest of 1 orange
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 tbsp sour cream

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease a cake pan (the Moroccan version called for a tube pan. I don't have a tube pan so I used the often hazardous spring-form pan. This time I remembered to put it on a baking sheet in the oven and thereby did not fill the house with smoke). Zest orange and squeeze as much juice as possible from orange (I did this by hand as my parents had hidden the juice squeezing device. I don't recommend doing this by hand, especially if your hands are small and weak like mine). Supplement with orange juice from fridge or another orange if necessary to fill 1/2 cup.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick. This can be done by hand with a whisk or with your fancy kitchenaid that I will one day possess... Pour in the oils. Note: The choice to use part olive oil, as opposed to all vegetable oil, came from seeing olive oil used in a number of orange cakes. I have learned through recent experimentation that olive oil subtly complements a variety of cake flavors (soon to come: olive oil chocolate cake-loaf). Orange's ability to jump between swimming sweetly in a smoothie (maybe I should be a kindergarten teacher?) and tartly enhancing a salad led me to assume that this, too, was one such versatile flavor. That said, feel free to use all vegetable oil or all olive oil at this stage.

Mix in the flour, baking powder (next time I might try cutting back on one tsp of the baking powder for a slightly denser cake. But I like dense things. And people), and salt. Pour in the OJ, zest and vanilla. The sour cream was another matter of luck/convenience. I have never found sour cream to detract from the deliciousness of a cake. When I saw some in the fridge, undoubtedly on its way to expiring without being used to its full potential, the choice was clear. I was still somewhat tentative and stuck with one tablespoon for trial purposes. Perhaps more next time.

Beat it all up until combined. Pour into prepared springform or tube pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool. Cut cake in half. Wrap half in tin foil. Bring half cake to Julie's for post dinner consumption. Sorry for no pictures.