9.22.20
It’s hard to know how to restart. There should be a more dramatic answer as to why this blog has sat untouched for nearly a year and a half, but it’s fairly simple. Lack of time was the biggest culprit, then lack of inspiration, and finally lack of ingredients, not necessarily always in that order. So gather round and listen to the story of why I’ve been a missing blogger since early 2019.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m an actor in New York City. My survival job for many many years was in restaurants, which meant a lot of night shifts. This allowed me to spend my mornings baking, taking pictures, etc before heading to work until the wee hours of the night. A few years ago I finally quit. Working in restaurants meant I wasn’t able to go to as many auditions as I wanted/needed, I was treated as subhuman by many restaurant guests, and I never saw my husband. I decided to start working as a temp in offices around the city instead. Overall it was an enormous improvement. I could dictate my schedule, go to auditions on lunch breaks (or take the day off for ones that were a big deal), and go to bed at a reasonable time. But the time I used to allot to baking disappeared. During the day I was working and in the evenings I’d be making dinner, seeing shows, in rehearsals, or a million other things. Baking was always a creative outlet for when I wasn’t acting. I didn’t seek baking inspiration because I was fulfilled elsewhere.
Then March happened. I think back to my attitude and the casual way the offices I worked at thought NYC would be closed for two weeks at most once word of the virus hit. Then it seemed maybe the closure would be longer, which I thought meant I’d have so much time to bake and try new things. This could be a much needed mental break! That was all wrong. Being here in the epicenter of this through the early months was haunting. I couldn’t stop watching the news or briefings from our governor. I had no motivation to bake or do anything really. And most importantly, along with toilet paper, flour and yeast (and many other baking supplies) were near impossible to find in grocery stores. My husband and I were going grocery shopping as rarely as we could, stocking up on essential foods we could stretch over weeks and pantry items that would have a long shelf life. Buying anything ‘just for a fun baking project’ wasn’t an option. We needed as much room in our grocery bags as possible to carry food home. Not to mention seeing friends was out of the question, so there’s no way I would’ve been able to offload baked goods anyway. It was scary, and unlike anything I thought I’d ever live through. It’s hard for me to watch so many people continue not to take it seriously because it IS serious. I won’t go into too much detail here but if you want to know what it was like when even going outside itself felt like a risk, hit me up. It will paint a clearer picture for why I cannot grasp why people won’t simply wear a mask or listen to scientists.
My jobs have not come back. Any of them. Theatre is shut down for the foreseeable future, and offices still aren’t at full capacity, so reception jobs are pretty slim. New Yorkers have stayed strong, we’ve kept our infection level down so we’ve been able to have certain aspects of our life come back. A few months ago when the shelves were full of flour and cans of beans again I knew we had turned a corner. Seeing people and businesses in this city adapt has been truly inspiring. It took six months of quarantine, but after redirecting my focus, I finally wanted to bake new things again. I am ready to roll with what life gives me until I can audition regularly like I was in the before times. I can see friends safely with masks or socially distant and give them my bakes. I can easily run to the store if I need more flour now and not have to wait in a line around the block. I could keep writing about what I’ve learned and what I’ve realized I’m grateful for over the past months but I’ll leave it at that.
I’m not sure why an olive oil cake sounded so tasty, or why I wanted to make it my first post back. I posted one on the blog years ago, but I wanted to try again. Figs are still around for the rest of the month so it seemed appropriate to utilize them in some way. What came of this was a moist, bouncy cake where orange, almond and fig all meet together and air hug (because we still aren’t touching people yet). This cake can be decorated with basically anything and goes especially well in the morning with coffee. As a new season officially begins today, it seems only right I reemerge from my quarantine hole to begin posting again. So I present to you, my first post since May 2019. I hope you all are safe, keeping those around you safe, and staying hopeful, I’m trying my best too.
Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Dipped Figs
Ingredients
Olive Oil Cake
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup white granulated sugar + more for sprinkling
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 cup orange liqueur
- 1 cup sliced almonds + more for sprinkling
- 1/3 cup fig jam (optional)
- chocolate dipped figs for garnish – recipe follows
Chocolate Dipped Figs
- 1 quart fresh figs, halved
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate
- 2 tsp canola oil
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside
- Place chocolate and canola oil in a heatproof cup and melt in microwave by warming in 35 second bursts, stirring, and then warming again until fully melted
- Dip halved figs halfway into melted chocolate, allowing excess to drip back into the cup, place cut side up on baking sheet
- Continue with all figs, sprinkle chocolate half with a small amount of sea salt on top
- Place in fridge and chill until cake is cooled
- While the figs chill, preheat oven to 350, line a 9″ springform pan with parchment paper (see picture) allowing excess to fold over the edges
- Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, set aside
- In the bowl of a stand up mixer with a paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar for 3-5 minutes on medium speed, allowing it to thicken and reach a pale yellow color
- Switch to low speed and add olive oil in a slow but steady stream, the batter should take on a glossy look once fully combined
- Add in buttermilk, almond extract and orange liqueur, allowing each to beat into mixture before adding the next
- Add in dry ingredients in two sections, allowing to combine on low speed
- Once just combined add in sliced almonds and allow to mix into batter evenly
- If adding fig jam to cake, pour HALF of cake batter into springform pan, add dollops of fig jam all over top of batter. then pour remaining batter into pan. If not using jam, simply pour all of the batter into the springform pan and even out using offset spatula
- Carefully tap pan a few times on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles, then sprinkle top of cake with additional white sugar
- Bake for 55-60 minutes, cake should have a golden color, bounce back when lightly pressed on top, and cake tester should come out of center clean
- Once baked, allow to cool 15-20 minutes before releasing from spring form, then full cool
- When ready to serve, place chilled chocolate figs on top of cake and sprinkle remaining almonds on top
- This cake can be kept in the fridge so chocolate doesn’t melt, but bring to room temperature before serving
