sf wrote:

> Orange and Olive Oil Cake with Rosemary
>
> Ingredients:
>
> 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
> 1 cup sugar
> 3 eggs
> 3 large navel oranges, zested
> 3/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
> 2 cups all purpose flour
> 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
> 1 (generous) tsp, finely chopped fresh rosemary
> 1/8 tsp salt
> Butter or non stick cooking spray to grease the pan
>
> Method:
> Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 X 4 loaf pan with butter
> or cooking spray.
>
> Measure sugar into a bowl. Zest the oranges and add the zest directly
> to the sugar in the bowl. Try to touch the zest as little as possible
> and mix it into the sugar with a whisk or a fork. The idea is to keep
> the orange oils for the sugar and not all over your hands. The sugar
> will turn an orangey color, <http://oi56.tinypic.com/2mqkwv5.jpg>
> which will be the color of the finished cake.
>
> Juice the oranges, for about 3/4 cups of juice. Set aside.
>
> Sift the dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the
> chopped rosemary and set aside.
>
> Add the oil to the sugar and mix until blended. Beat in each egg, one
> by one, until thick foamy and almost doubled. Add about 1/3 cup flour
> and mix it in well, alternate with about 1/4 cup of juice. Repeat
> until the flour and the juice are used up. Scrape batter off the
> sides of the bowl and gently pour it into the prepared loaf pan. Bake
> in preheated oven, for 50 minutes to 1 hour (mine took an hour), or
> until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
> <http://oi51.tinypic.com/27xgtxk.jpg>

I think I'd use honey in place of some of the sugar. For Easter I made a
chestnut cheesecake with rosemary-infused honey and oranges which was very
good.

As you wrote elsewhere in the thread, it's probably not that important to
use navel oranges. Given the choice, I'd probably use Valencia oranges,
though it might be necessary to use four of them to make an equivalent
amount of zest and juice as the three navel oranges called for in the
recipe.

Bob