Letters from an Aspiring Sous #48
Grapefruit olive oil cake
When I was a freshman in college, I applied to be a student leader for the university’s Outward Bound program. It was a backpacking trip available for incoming students’ orientation. I wrote an essay. I went through the interview process. My older sister was two years ahead of me and already on the staff. I figured that I was a shoe-in. But I wasn’t selected. My sister called me later that day to ask if it was possible to retract an email. Not to my knowledge. While she had intended to send her irate diatribe to only the leadership team, it went to the entire club. I was grateful even though it had no bearing on the result. It’s one of the first times I can recall feeling like my grand plan had irrevocably diverged from reality.
My younger sister’s due date was nearly a week ago. But here we are, still waiting for our family’s first granddaughter to make an appearance. I’m not totally certain when this biological standoff concludes (my only child walks on four legs and was delivered to me on an airplane). I do know that she she can’t camp out in there forever. And that no amount of angry emails will coax her out. Unlike my freshman year rejection, however, this plan will eventually swing back around and hit reality smack in the face.
Last night, I sat on the kitchen floor peering through the glass of the oven door as the center of my grapefruit olive oil cake rose and then collapsed. It was distressing. Granted, Alex seemed mildly amused, calling from the couch, baking is a very unpredictable art! And here I was thinking that baking was the science. I was once again reminded that despite our best efforts, not everything goes as planned. Sometimes only for a brief turn, other times with no way back. In this case, I was determined to salvage my cake. So I flipped it over. While I’ve clearly not mastered the art of baking, I’d like to think that my upside down cake tastes as good as the real thing. Here is the mildly finicky recipe from Molly Baz’s Cook This Book.
(Upside down) grapefruit olive oil cake
Ingredients
2 red grapefruit
3 large eggs
1/2 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons roasted, salted pistachios
Step 1. Position a rack in the bottom third of your oven and one in the center. Preheat your oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with either 1 tablespoon of olive oil or butter. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit inside your loaf pan so that when you line the pan with paper you have extra “handles” hanging over each of the two long sides of the pan.
Step 2. This is going to be a classic prep your dry ingredients, prep your wet ingredients, mix ‘em together until just combined and no more. First, the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Step 3. Now onto the wet ingredients. Finely grate the zest of 1 grapefruit and add about 2 loosely packed tablespoons of zest to a large mixing bowl. Add the granulated sugar and using your hands, massage together the zest and sugar until well combined, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the eggs, olive oil and yogurt until very smooth. You shouldn’t eat raw eggs so don’t taste that mustard-looking custard. But rest assured that I did and it’s delicious.
Step 4. Cut your grapefruit in half and squeeze the juice into a large measuring cup or mason jar, removing the seeds as you go. Whisk 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice into the wet ingredients.
Step 5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined. The more you mix the batter, the tougher your cake will be. Pour batter into the lined loaf pan and bake on the middle rack until a toothpick or butter knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 65 to 85 minutes. Place a baking sheet on the bottom rack to catch any overflow.
Step 6. Add about 1 tablespoon of remaining zest to a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of grapefruit juice. Whisk in the powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Cover and set aside until cake has fully cooled.
Step 7. After removing the cake from the oven, run a knife around its edge to separate from pan and using the parchment paper, lift it out of the pan and transfer to a wire rack. Once cooled completely, drizzle glaze on top of cake and sprinkle on those roughly chopped pistachios. Hopefully, you don’t need to turn it upside down first.
p.s. Happy early birthday to my older sister! Who knows, she might even be sharing it with a new niece tomorrow. Fingers crossed.