Olive Oil Cake

I've been on a kick with little olive oil cakes. I think the best thing about them is that if you decide you want to make one, it's only a matter of pouring some of the fruity goodness into a measuring cup and getting a few other things ready, rather than waiting for butter to soften. Life can be so unpredictable, who knows what might happen between the time of taking the butter out and finding it to be soft enough yet. Make an olive oil cake.

Their Last Appearance

There are dozens of ways to a create a cranberry muffin, but the ones I baked up twice this week happen to feature only a smidgen of oil and a decent pour of orange juice. The batter is hand-mixed and not a carton of yogurt or block of butter are opened for what results in, we think, a lovely breakfast muffin. After adopting these blueberry muffins as my house muffin mix this year, it felt like a step back to not use that base for the cranberry orange muffin I was craving, but I have fallen for the simplicity of these. You have to have options. What if your dairy is running low? Sprinkled with leftover streusel and baked to golden, these muffins, in their minimalism, are excellent.

Blueberry Barley Coffee Cake

Three and a half years ago, when I bought Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain, the first alternative flour I picked up was barley flour. I really credit this book and the time I purchased it, for deepening my interest in baking. Suddenly, baked goods weren't about how much butter and sugar to feel concerned about. Instead they could be delicious and have depth. There could be rosemary, zest and good European butter and rustic rye tarts. It unlocked a sense of pleasure involved with the process I hadn't realized was there. I made the barley scones in the book and a few other things. Then it was time to try rye, kamut, oat, and spelt, and well, I only have so much flour real estate available. A few months ago, though, I picked up barley flour again, and have been throwing it into everything.