Orange Almond Cake

I’m a ‘Food Network’ avid follower. I love Top Chef, Chopped, and iron Chef America because it’s at a higher level than home cooking (witch I don’t think is bad at all) but it is interesting to learn from professionals. I’ve learned a lot with those programs. I’m always reading about famous chefs, and have all their recipe books. But recently I had to start to learn about baking. In the beginning it was a bit of a disaster, things didn’t seems to work, but I’m getting better. I had a few classes at the ICE and also a very good friend that is a pastry chef gave me some lessons how to make pastry dough. He was awesome and through him I learned it was easier than I thought.  But usually the cakes I like are very simple and have some fruits and nuts in it. I love this recipe in particular because instead of butter it uses olive oil, making it incredibly moist and yummy.

Orange Almond Cake

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1-cup caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup whole milk
• ½ cup mild flavored olive oil
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
• For the topping:
• ½ cup of orange juice
• ½ cup of caster sugar
• Shaved almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Oil and flour 9″x5″x3″ metal loaf pan. Whisk first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk eggs, milks, olive oil and orange peel in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk egg mixture into dry ingredients. Transfer to prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 60-65 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Invert pan to remove cake. Make simple syrup with orange juice and sugar, to top the cake and spread the toasted shaved almonds.