If you are looking for a rich and luxurious cake as a christmas cake but not the traditional fruit cake this Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Plums could be a delicious option for something different and summery.

Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake

The recipe is from Milk and Honey, one of my favourite blogs. I made Jennifer’s recipe a while back and it is absolutely delicious. She made it with a divine coffee cream filling and decadent ganache topping and I urge you to try it if my  (rather toned down) version does not appeal as much to you.

Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake

I changed the recipe a bit from the original and added some speculaas spice to the mix for extra flavour (it is however optional if you do not have the spice mix at hand). And to simplify my life I did not make a filling or a topping but rather replaced the ganache with some sliced fresh plums that are now in season. I loved how the tartness of the plums work with the richness of the hazelnuts and olive oil in this cake. It is also a beautiful “christmassy” colour on top of the coffee coloured cake.

I have not really seen hazelnut meal in the shops so I ground the nuts in a coffee grinder. I did not grind it to a totally fine meal as I wanted some rough bits in the meal for added texture in the cake. Careful to not over grind the nuts to an oily pulp. Rather pulse it until you have the desired textured meal.

Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake

If you look at the pictures you will see some pink from pieces of plum in the batter. My initial idea was to place the plum slices on top of the batter to bake with the cake but the batter is quite liquid so they dropped to the bottom of the cake tin. The cake was a bit soggy around the pieces of fruit so it must better to rather bake the cake without and serve the fresh plums with the baked cake.

Click here for many more festive recipes and some of my favourite bakes with olive oil can be found here.

Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake

Hazelnut Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Plums

Ingredients
  

  • 220 g caster sugar
  • 5 eggs lightly beaten
  • 350 g hazelnut meal
  • 50 ml strong espresso coffee
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp spekulaas spice mix
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 150 ml Baleia Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 4 fresh plums sliced

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
  • Grease and line a 22cm round springform pan with baking paper
  • Combine all the cake ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed in the centre
  • Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely
  • Serve with fresh cream and sliced plums
  • Adapted from Milk and Honey

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** Disclaimer: Olive oil sponsored by Baleia Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I am proud to be associated with Baleia Extra Virgin Olive Oil and use it whenever a recipe requires Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The South African cold press extra virgin Olive Oil is produced in the Riversdale area, has a whiff of fresh cut grass and aromas of green tomatoes, almonds artichokes and green apples.


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