Olive oil and hazlenut cake for Orange F.O.O.D Week

The program for our annual food festival was released today. Whoop! Orange F.O.O.D Week (food of the Orange region) is celebrating its 25th birthday this April, and the 2016 program is one big celebration of Orange’s food and wine with fantastic events put on by all the producers, winery’s and restaurants of the region. Click here to download the full program.

For our part, we are hosting two really special pop up lunches out in the paddocks and have invited chef Daniel Backhouse to come along and cook for us. Bookings are now open for the Saturday 9 (we’d originally advertised just the one lunch on Sunday April 10 but it sold out in one day so have added another one on the Saturday and spaces are currently available).

Another reason I’m excited about today’s program release is the cover – it features a really delicious hazlenut and olive oil cake, recipe and styling by me, photographed by my friend; photographer and lovely human being Pip Farqhuarson

We had a great time shooting this cake at the Old Convent B&B and Cafe (above) and Pip has kindly sent me a few photos from the day to share here, with the cake’s recipe of course…

This cake is one of my all-time favourites for a few reasons;

1. Made with local and seasonal hazlenuts, olive oil, eggs and figs it’s a true celebration of Autumn in Orange.
2. All you need to make it is a bowl, wooden spoon and 10 minutes.
3. Un-iced and wrapped tightly, it lasts for up to a week.
4. It’s absolutely delicious.

Hazlenut, olive oil and fig cake with salted caramel

Prep time – 5 mins
Cook time – 35-45 minutes
Serves – 10

This dense, delicious cake is fantastic for any celebration and best of all, all you need to make it is five minutes, a mixing bowl and wooden spoon. Swap the hazlenuts with any other nut you prefer and of course instead of figs, any poached or fresh seasonal fruit would be beautiful here too.  If making your own hazlenut meal for this cake, (which will add lots more flavour and texture to the cake), just buy ready toasted nuts and blitz in a food processor until fine, or toast the nuts yourself for 10 minutes in a moderate oven, then rub them in a clean tea towel to remove the skins then blitz.

1 cup (220g) caster sugar
3 x cups (300g) hazlenut meal
5 x eggs
Seeds of one vanilla bean
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
150mls olive oil (not too peppery)

To decorate
250g mascarpone cheese (softly whipped cream or thick Greek-style yogurt would both be good here too)
1/3 cup (100g) toasted hazlenuts, roughly chopped
4-5 fresh figs, quartered
Caramel sauce (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined, pour into the cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 35-45 minutes or until the cake’s centre is springy to touch and it’s just coming away from the sides. Let cool in the tin for five minutes then turn out to a rack to cool completely.

When ready to serve, spoon the mascarpone all over the cake, top with the hazlenuts, figs and finish with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Salted caramel sauce
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (75mls) water
1/2 cup (125mls) cream
1 tsp sea salt (or to taste)

For the caramel, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan on medium heat, swirl around a little and then let cook until the sugar has dissolved completely into the water and you have a dark, golden caramel. This will take about five minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the cream and sugar then set aside. Keep in the fridge until needed and don’t worry if it becomes to thick to pour, just pop in the microwave or return to a saucepan over medium heat for a minute before serving and it will pour and drizzle beautifully.