This Spanish inspired cake makes for a wonderful afternoon tea cake, perfectly accompanied with a cup of tea or coffee. Or in my case, a glass of sweet sherry.
I'm not a great fan of quince paste however, I absolutely adored it in this recipe. The quince provides the chewy bursts of sweetness, much in the same manner as raisins or sultanas, which works perfectly as the cake itself isn't particularly sugary. I probably used about 80-90g of quince paste all up in this recipe but next time I'll use much more (as you can see, there wasn't enough inside the cake!). The amount of quince paste to use is purely up to you of course!
Do not be put off by the absence of butter in this recipe. The use of light olive oil is actually a perfect alternative to butter for calorie-conscious bakers. In fact it makes a great all-round butter substitute in most cake recipes that doesn't require the butter for flavour (for example you wouldn't substitute the butter in a Pound cake). Furthermore due to the lack of preservatives and artificial nasties in olive oil, your cake will keep longer and store better (or so I read). Rest assured that your cake will not taste like olives so allay your fears!
Olive Oil and Quince Paste Madeira Cake
(Bizcocho de Aceite Dulce de Membrillo)
Ingredients
zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange - finely grated (reserve the orange for juicing)
150g caster sugar
1 1/2 C plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 tsps baking powder
150ml light olive oil
3 eggs
juice of one orange
100g to 150g firm quince paste - diced
Method
Preheat the oven 175°C and grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper (about a 1 Litre capacity)
Place the orange and lemon zest with the caster sugar in the mixing bowl. Rub the zest into the sugar until most of the sugar has turned into a nice lemony colour (this infuses the sugar with the citrus oil).
Stir in the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs and orange juice.
Beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you have a smooth batter.
Spoon a third of the batter into the loaf tin and scatter over the diced quince paste. Spoon another third of the batter, scatter some more quince paste over then pour the remaining mixture over the top.
Bake for 10 minutes then dot more quince paste over the top.
Bake for a further 30 minutes or until it's well risen and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
Remove from oven and allow the cake to completely cool in the tin.
Dust the top with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of marscapone and fresh orange slices. Store the cake in an airtight container (it'll keep for a week).
Recipe adapted from Dish magazine (NZ)
Oooh nice idea using quince paste! I thought it was raisins or sultanas. And I like using oil in loaves too, it suits them :)
Hi Lorraine: Thanks sweetie! I agree!
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