A cake to savor

esther — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:20:00 +0100

Let's get the mingle started!!! Monthly Mingle is here again and Meeta steps it up a notch (well, at least for me) with a great Savory Cakes theme. This is absolutely the first time in my entire life that I have ever made a savory cake and it's exciting. I was a bit hesitant at first but I am really happy with the end results.

I don't know why, but savory cakes were not something that I ever encountered before coming to France. Which is strange because they seem like they could have been found in the baking section of some scary 1970's cookbook, right along side tuna wiggle (although much tastier).

I remember the first time I ever even heard of one. It was few years ago and a bunch of us were getting together for a light Friday night dinner and drinks party and I called the host to see what I could bring. As he was going through the list, he mentioned that someone was bringing their signature olive cake and it was to die for. My first thought was 'Blech, you won't catch me dead with that near my lips' and my second though was 'Crap! I was going to bring dessert'. I know, a total blond or whatever sort of moment. For some reason, my brain refused to decode the obvious.

All day until the party, I thought about this strange cake and about what could possess someone to serve olives for dessert. My mind was doing leaps and bounds trying to figure out what the recipe could possibly be and I was at a loss. When we finally arrived, we sat down and there it was, the famous olive cake, on the coffee table amidst a bevy of cocktails and other hors d'oeuvres. And it was good. And it was savory.

The hub had an excellent idea for this recipe. He suggested serving these warm colored slices with a light whipped chive cream. I couldn't have thought of anything better if I tried.

Savory roasted pepper and sundried tomato cake

150 grams flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 Tbsp. olive oil
*150 ml of roasted yellow pepper purée
25 grams pine nuts
45 grams feta
6-7 leaves of fresh basil
8-10 sun dried tomatoes

Begin by sifting together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, Whisk eggs well and combine with the pepper purée and olive oil.

Roast the pine nuts in a metal skillet until they are nicely browned on all sides. Meanwhile begin draining and chopping the sun dried tomatoes. Chiffonade the basil and crumble the feta.

Add the flour mixture to the wet and once the flour is even distributed, add in the feta, pine nuts, basil and tomatoes.

Pour into a regular sized loaf pan (I used silicone) and decorate the top of the cake with a few leftover basil leaves.

Bake at 200°C for about 35 minutes.

* The first time through, I didn't add any salt because I was worried that the feta and sun dried tomatoes would be too much, but in retrospect, I should have definitely added it and maybe a dash of hot pepper.

Roasted yellow pepper purée

3 yellow peppers
3 cloves of garlic

Spray peppers and garlic with olive oil and set them in the oven to roast on a baking sheet. Turn the peppers once in awhile so that they brown on each side. Once both the peppers and the garlic are soft, remove from the oven.

Remove the stems and seeds, peel the garlic and whirl everything together in a food processor. You might want to add a little water.

Boxcar Kitchen - Little snacks

A cake to savor

Savory roasted pepper and sundried tomato cake

Roasted yellow pepper purée