Because this not too sweet cake is a tweak of a tweak that even I have made a few versions of…. I’m including the introduction to my blogpost for an all-apple cake from last spring to provide background…

I’ve been baking this friendly cake for a few months now in one variation or another. First, I was just fascinated by the ingredients in the original Almond Cake recipe, which belongs to Molly Wizenberg and was adapted by Mark Bittman and Sam Sifton…and later by me along with a few thousand of my closest friends. It starts with boiling an orange and a lemon together for a half hour, removing the seeds, and puréeing the now softened peels. Nothing I’d ever done in my not-so-extensive cake baking career; still, I was sold. There’s no butter but there’s plenty of olive oil, making it taste and feel seriously Mediterranean or just Spanish… and keeping it moist for a few days right on the old proverbial counter. That’s even in Colorado at altitude where bread becomes crouton material in 15 minutes flat. The original “Tarta de Santiago” or St. James Cake (very similar to the almond cake I kept making) is a middle ages and Camino de Santiago specialty still baked each July 25, for the feast of St. James. One couldn’t have asked for a better plain cake or maybe even one with more spiritual flavor. Think gently citrusy and uber nutty pound cake only lighter. My dad, who abhorred all things frosting, would have inhaled it. Only thing my cake needed was a little barely sweetened whipped cream or a few berries, as you see in my photo (below the recipe in this post). Or just a cup of coffee if you were my dad. Maybe a small Armagnac if you were me. A wee dram or a cuppa if you weren’t.

Fast forward seven months from the apple cake I then baked based on Molly’s almond one. It’s now holiday time, better known as crunch time. Even more crunchy at our house as our sewer backed up into our lower level in early October and by Christmas (the original end of reconstruction date/ha ha), we were still in a nasty mess. Noise, work people in and out, dust, paint and tile decisions– all on top of being squeezed into one level for Christmas celebrations. Whoa is me; I know! While I had every intention of getting this cake– now morphed into a cranberry version– baked again, tested, and written up by New Year’s, one thing or another just kept getting in my way. Company, family illness, the dreaded white week prep for a non-routine colonoscopy (looks like I’m ok after all–phew), arranging a cooking schedule of volunteers for our local homeless families through Family Promise here in Colorado Springs, and…so on. I can’t remember many times in the blog’s history where I simply went missing. Vacations, sure. Planned stuff, right? (You may remember an unexpected short hiatus in October right after the current disaster struct.) Moment after moment simply slipped away, all without a blogged cake in sight. But I didn’t forget you, sweet cake or dear readers. Today, squeezed in between physical therapy (sore hip on the mend) and a trip to Costco, I baked the cake again. And, when I got home, I sure as shooting photographed it while the light held. Light; it’s everything. Especially come winter. So grateful for our Colorado sun.

I hope you froze some cranberries so you can make my cake though the cranberries in my fridge were still perfectly good right here at nearly the end of January. Really? I can hardly believe it. No cranberries? You can skip them, add more apples in the batter, or use diced, ripe pears in place of the cranberries at the bottom of the pan. No boiling or puréeing citrus here as in the original recipe; simple zesting and squeezing are all that’s needed and that cuts some of the prep time. Yay! Use an organic lemon as non-organic are usually covered in wax and contain pesticides. Do note: The time consuming portion of this prep is toasting, cooling, and grinding the almonds. You can even do it a day ahead and store them in a tightly-covered container.

And while this sweet is light, it’s also full of flavor, tenderness, a gentle crunchiness (a lot of almonds in here), and an intrinsic warmth with its welcome winter spices. It’s just a happy nudge of a simple cake that’s pretty healthy as cakes go. Whole wheat? Check. No butter? Check. Olive oil? (Choose a milder variety.) Check. Fruit? Check. Nuts? You mean there’s a cake with protein?! Check. Great for dessert, but not too shabby for breakfast or for a mid-afternoon snack, either. Could you gild the lily with brandy-laced whipping cream or cinnamon ice cream or both? For sure. But you needn’t go that far unless you just want to. A fresh pot of nearly too-strong coffee will be the first order of business-and perhaps the only one seriously needed– when you try this:

“We Ate This Cake” Molly Wizenberg/Orangette (2/14/2010)

Almond Cake/Sam Sifton and Mark Bittman’s version

Alyce’s Whole Wheat Apple Olive Oil Cake/similar cake with a few twists

How to Toast Almonds/Spruce Eats

Chopping Nuts With and Without a Food Processor/GHUK

What is Lemon Zest? (also info on how to zest a lemon without a zester)/Allrecipes

Cake Pan Sizes & Conversions/Sally’s Baking Addiction

CHANGE IT UP:

• Extra cranberries! Why not? But, whoa! Not too many. My first try on this cake used 1/3 cup cranberries on the bottom of the cake pan; I soon increased it to 1/2 cup. Because, well…cranberries. You could raise that to 3/4 cup or maybe even a whole cup. They shouldn’t overwhelm the cake but rather be a firmly central, tasty component.
• As noted, skip cranberries and add more apples in the batter or add diced, ripe pears at the bottom of the pan.
• Swap in cloves for the nutmeg or use cardamom, as noted in the recipe.
• Use 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon instead of 3/4 teaspoons each cinnamon and ginger.
• No lemon? Try orange instead, using half an organic orange for both the zest and the juice.
• Use white, all-purpose, unbleached flour in place of the whole wheat flour.
• Serve with sliced apples sautéed in butter.

LIFE GOES ON:

Is soup good medicine? You betcha!

Made a pot of this chicken soup (above) for my neighbor, Mary Pat, who has a crumbly tumbly. Poor girl. If you’re at the point where you can eat in an illness –if not, you might first be on tea +/or broth and then on the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast)– this soup is healing and energy-giving. When we both had Covid last year, one day when I felt somewhat capable, I made a pot of it, and Dave still claims it’s what got him over the plague. You can make it without chicken; use veggie broth in place of chicken broth, as well. Increase the celery and carrots and maybe add fennel. (I wouldn’t include any cruciferous vegetables, peas, corn, etc.) Skip the heat; the gentler the spice, the better. And, should you have little people in your household, my soup is pretty kid-friendly.

I’ve had this book–now available in paperback– sitting on my shelf a year or two and am finally making time to read it when I’m not reading my book club book. A fascinating, pointed, but not too detailed history of restaurants — or us going to them. This is a favorite subject of mine: why we eat at restaurants. (Why do you?) Ribbat’s book, originally published in German, also helps you think through the whole expensive, not-always-healthy, and sometimes addictive but often fun habit.

I’m in great hopes your holidays were all you needed them to be and that you are looking forward to a happy February full of football (well…. you know me and football but I’ll cook for Super Bowl most years) and valentines. If you’re a Christian, Lent begins on Valentine’s Day and you can begin looking at all my FRIDAY FISH posts from years past. Click on FISH AND SEAFOOD in the word cloud or type Friday Fish into the search bar. We are supposed to be on a long cruise to Hawaii in February, but Dave’s dad is quite ill; we may be rescheduling. In which case, I will blog fish as I’m able. Say a little prayer for our family, won’t you? Thanks, my friends <3.

Stay warm. Bake a cake!

Alyce