pastel de aceite de oliva

Dan Lepard's spiced olive oil cake recipe

The festive gluttony is at an end, so here's a cake that's free from butter but not free of comforting flavour

• 
• • Dan Lepard
  • The Guardian, Saturday 12 January 2013

Spiced olive oil cake. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

When you're after a lean cake for the new year – something sweet with less hard fat and carbohydrates – you'll have to think more about flavouring than with buttery baking. Dairy fats seem to register on the taste buds as richly flavoured and comforting, and it's surprising how that all vanishes once you cut them out. So here I've used olive oil along with wholemeal flour and spice to create a complex flavour blanket to swaddle the ingredients into one bundle of baking joy.

With a pungent olive oil you might want to increase the spice, unless you particularly like the olive flavour. Ground ginger and cinnamon work well, and mixed spice is a good standby. Or add another flavour, such as caraway seeds, dried berries, or wine instead of water, to mix it up and cut the intensity. Replace olive oil with sunflower, though the flavouring may need a boost. Play with the sugar you use: I started with a basic dark-brown type, but you could equally use a molasses-rich muscovado or an utterly white sort.

Makes one 20cm diameter cake

3 medium eggs
150g soft dark-brown sugar
150ml olive oil
30ml cold water
200g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground spice, any sort you like

1 Line the base and sides of a deep, round 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, and heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/gas mark 4.

2 In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes on high speed until creamy, slightly thick and pale.

3 Add the oil and water then beat again until evenly mixed through. If you want to add any extras such as grated zest, chopped nuts or flavourings, add them now.

4 Measure the flour, baking powder and spice into another bowl, stir them together with a spoon, then add this to the eggs and fold through quickly but gently until just combined.

5 Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

6 Leave to cool in the tin then split and layer with jam, icing or buttercream. You can also make a simple sugar syrup, flavoured with vanilla, and spoon a little of this over the split cake before decorating.