I ordered the book, Simple fare by Sunday Suppers last spring. I was stunned by the simplicity of the photography and also by the recipes. Simple recipes which definitely took time to be this perfect, those kind of recipes that add joy and excitement to your table.

Yesterday In search for a cake recipe - easy one and not that sweet as I am pregnant and I didn't want to give my baby the sugar rush, I found this easy to follow Dark chocolate olive oil! It sounded lovely, and I'm always a fan of olive oil in a cakes.

I also loved they way she used the middle eastern and also classic Persian aromas like Cardamom, pistachios & Rose petals.

For the recipe I used extra virgin olive oil, try to use the best olive oil you can find and if you can not find any of that, go for the best vegetable oil. In her recipe she used salt which I generally love salty & sweet cakes but in this case I just skipped the flaky salt too! Another good thing about this cake is that it's perfect for layer cakes. You can easily make some very nice frosting and layer it with frosting and summer fruits such as strawberries or berries. The cake itself is simple without any spice (if you skip the salt as I did) so if you do, you can go for rose water or cardamom in the cake too!

For the cream I went for coconut milk/cream instead of whole cream (as in the book) because in this way it's much lighter. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ingredients for the cake:

180 ml extra virgin olive oil and some more for greasing the pan
70 g good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
120 ml boiling water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
165 g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
195 g superfine sugar
3 large eggs
some flake salt ( I skipped that)

Ingredients for the coconut cream:

250 ml coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

For serving:

1 teaspoon dry rose petals
1 tablespoon Persian pistachios
1-2 tablespoon powdered sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 165C/325F . Grease a 23 cm cake pan with some butter or olive oil and cover with parchment paper.
Bring to boil the water, In a bowl, sift the cocoa powder and add the boiling water, whisk until smooth and shiny, whisk the vanilla and set aside to cool.
In a separate large bowl mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (with paddle), beat the sugar, olive oil and eggs with medium/high until you have a light and fluffy cream. About 3-4 minutes.
Then turn the speed down and add the chocolate mixture, then slowly add the flour mixture, until is all mixed perfectly and evenly.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle with flaky salt (I skip that). Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake tester (inserted to the center of the cake) come out clean.
Let the cake cool down for 10-20 minutes.

For the cream:

While the cake is baking, place the bowl of stand mixer in the fridge and place the coconut milk in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.
Then place the coconut milk in your bowl of stand mixer and whisk un medium/high for about 3 to 4 minutes or until fluffy, in the last minutes, add the cardamom or your favorite aroma, continue to mix for couple of seconds until well combined. Cover and keep in the fridge until the cake is baked, cool down and ready to be served.

Fo serving:

When the cake is cooled down, serve the cake with fluffy coconut cream, topped with Persian pistachios, rose petals and if you like your cake sweeter, just sift some powdered sugar on top.