Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Grapefruit and Honey Cake

This particular recipe is one we tried from Mario Batali, you have to like a more savory cake. It would be great with tea or as a dessert after a particularly heavy meal. The cake itself is dense and beautiful. The grapefruit rind lends a bitter taste to the final product but served with some freshly whipped cream and a drizzle of honey... it's just divine. It also keeps well and probably freezes nicely too. Easy to make and on second thought maybe a nice hostess gift as it would be great for a brunch or breakfast cake. (Tip - do yourself a favor and grind your own breadcrumbs it really makes a nice difference) .

 1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons freshly ground breadcrumbs
2 medium grapefruits
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9" round cake pan with tall sides and dust it with the 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs. Zest both grapefruits ( for a less bitter taste you can cut back on the zest and when grating make sure to only get the skin not the white pith, it's way more bitter). Juice 3/4 cup juice from one of the fruits. Combine zest, juice and olive oil in a bowl.
In a large bowl beat the eggs and salt with an electric mixer until frothy and light, slowly beat in the sugar and then the honey, continue mixing until pale and thick (about 2 more minutes).
Sift into the egg mixture the baking powder, additional breadcrumbs and flour, when combined fold in the grapefruit juice mixture until just incorporated.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Serve with fresh whipped cream and a drizzle of honey or if you are really ready to knock 'em dead section some grapefruits for the top as well.
Always great to get your ingredients out first so nothing is missing !

Pan oiled and dusted with breadcrumbs

finished cake out of the oven on cooling rack

first slice (we couldn't wait 'til after dinner)

Presentation fun for the holidays !




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