dairy-free Italian Olive Oil cake with orange zest

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! I spent much of it making a birthday cake for my son, whose birthday is the first of April ( yes, he's an April Fool), who came to visit late in the day with his very lovely (and serious) girlfriend. I'm glad I had something to do - I was feeling a little nervous about meeting someone who may very well become part of the family.

My son developed a milk allergy last year, so, even though he asked for the traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting , I couldn't do it. I remembered his days of pain last year after partaking of several helpings of cake and frosting. So I made this wonderful Italian Olive Oil cake, and jazzed it up with a dairy-free frosting from Cybele Pascal's Allergen-Free Baker's handbook. For a little more tang, I also made a lemon glaze that I brushed on while it was still warm. The frosting was just fine, but I missed the butter and cream cheese taste . The recipe called for vegetable shortening, and all I had was Crisco, but adding lemon juice and a little soymilk made it pretty tasty. Finding a good vegetable shortening is on my grocery list. You can also just dust the cake with confectioner's sugar, using a small sieve and shaking all over the cake. Strawberries or orange slices are a pretty garnish, too.

The cake:

from Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker

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Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease an 8" cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment , otherwise it sticks.

1 large orange

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup light olive oil or half virgin olive oil , half canola oil

3/4 cup plain or vanilla soymilk

1 1/2 cups King Arthur flour

1/4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. cinnamon

pinch of salt

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Grate or microplane the orange and squeeze out tablespoon of the fresh juice .

In mixer bowl, add the zest, orange juice, and eggs and mix.

Add the sugar and mix very well, then add the olive oil or olive/canola, mixing til creamy.

Add the soymilk, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix very well.

If the mixture is very soupy, add another tablespoon or so of flour.

Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Let sit on cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Run a dull knife around the pan. If the cake doesn't come out easily, gently pry around the cake with the dull knife. Remove parchment circle, and turn cake rightside up.

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Lemon glaze:

4 T. fresh lemon juice

4 T. sugar

Warm in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved, then brush on the cake.

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Dairy-free vanilla frosting:

In a mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment mix:

1 cup dairy free vegetable shortening

pinch of salt

1 T. fresh lemon or orange juice

3 cups confectioner's sugar

2 T. soymilk

1/2 t. vanilla

Whip until the frosting is fluffy .

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You might also enjoy: New York Lemon Cake