Olive Oil and Ricotta Cake aka Coconut Oil and Yogurt Cake aka Easter Cake aka Fourth of July Cake aka Make Me Cake

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I bake a lot of banana bread. A l-o-t of banana bread. And although it contains sweetener and flour, it still is sort of masquerading as a healthy treat, which is how I justify eating half a loaf a week *cough.* But this time I wanted a cake that was clearly a cake. Soft, sweet, mmm-inducing-cake, that goes perfectly with a cup of milky tea.

I had bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook as soon as it came out in Germany in 2013. I was so excited, because I've been reading Deb's blog for years. You can count on the recipes to work, and she always has a great combination of old favourites and exciting new ideas. I highly recommend both the cookbook and the blog! Oh, and of my cookbooks, it's my boyfriend's favourite, so if that's not a vote of confidence, I don't know what it!

So far I've made Peach and Sour Cream Pancakes (omg so good):

Plum Poppyseed Muffins (very fluffy, just lovely):

Tomato Scallion Shortcakes with Whipped Goat Cheese (the combination was to die for):

plus Gingerbread Spice Dutch Baby and Greens, Eggs and Hollandaise, but I didn't take any pictures of those, even though they turned out great as well. That means I was very hungry and they smelled to good to be plated properly. 

Now, on to the cake!

Deb wrote that this recipe is based on on of her favourite cakes, the French yogurt cake, but that she didn't have any yogurt, so she used ricotta and it turned out great. I didn't have any ricotta, so I used yogurt, and it turned out great. Plus I'm a new coconut oil convert, so I really wanted to use that instead of olive oil. This turned out so well that I really want to try her original recipe when I get a chance and when I do, I'll update this post.

I made a few other minor adaptations. I added a packet of vanilla sugar, plus more lemon zest than the original 1/2 teaspoon, because when it comes to vanilla sugar and lemon zest in baked goods, I can't hold myself back!!!

Later you'll see why this is called Fourth of July Cake - but I think it's also brilliant for other celebrations, say, Easter! Happy Easter everybody!

Wet Ingredients

• 250 grams yogurt (or ricotta)
• 80 ml melted coconut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar (I used the regular kind, not the fancy bourbon vanilla kind, but I'm sure bourbon vanilla couldn't hurt)
• 190 grams sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 eggs

Dry Ingredients

• 190 grams flour (I used 1/2 type 405, 1/2 type 1050)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• powdered sugar (to decorate the finished cake)

Mixed-berry Coulis

• 100 ml water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed juice
• pinch of salt 
• 185 grams of frozen mixed-berries

Preheat oven to 175C. If you're using coconut oil, hack out a couple of spoonfuls of the stuff (which is solid at room temp) into a small pot and start melting it over low heat. Don't go anywhere, because it doesn't take long! While you're waiting, cut a piece of parchment paper to line the bottom of a 23 cm springform cake pan. I do this the lazy way: Pull paper out, place on bottom of pan, fit top part over bottom part, squishing paper in place. Trim edges to avoid fire in oven. Don't skip that last step...

Anyway, by now the coconut oil will be melted, so take it off the heat. Dip a pastry brush in the oil to grease the sides of your cake pan and set it aside. Pour the oil into a mixing bowl and add the yogurt, whisking quickly. The cool yogurt will make the warm coconut oil turn solid again, but that's ok, as long as it hasn't hardened into one solid lump in the middle. Add vanilla sugar, regular sugar, lemon zest, and finally the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each ingredient.

Now - Ms. Perelman, a woman after my own heart! She tells us to sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, right over the wet ingredients. No second bowl. Fabulous! Once all is sifted mix gently until everything is just combined. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the cake passes the "toothpick test". The cake in the book was only golden yellow on top, and light brown on the sides, whereas mine turned out evenly light brown all over. 

When it's done, let it cool in the pan and make the coulis. Put all the ingredients into a small saucepan (I reused my coconut oil pot) and bring to a light simmer until the fruit is defrosted, which took me about 10 minutes. Squish all the fruit with a potato masher. Pour through a strainer and squish and scrape with a spoon till you can't get any more liquidy goodness out of the mush (the mush then, sadly, goes into the garbage). 

When you're ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the cake and release it from it's springform prison. The cake looks especially beautiful with some powdered sugar sifted over the top of it! (If you drop the lid of the sugar jar onto your cake, add more powdered sugar until you mostly can't see it anymore. Mostly.)

Cut individual slices and serve with a drizzle of coulis and maybe a fresh berry or two, if you're lucky enough to have them - and it makes it very patriotic, if you like that sort of thing :-) Goes brilliantly with a hot cup of tea.