blueberry, hazelnut and rosemary cake

In my limited experience with oil cakes, they do often seem to come out a bit on the heavier side; moist but also a little bit solid. The olive oil cake from Bouchon Bakery has seemed to be a particular exception; very light and without the oiliness to the crumb that can accompany other oil cakes.

I was hoping to replicate that with this adaptation, but I didn’t. The crumb was very moist and rather heavy.

Part of the blame may be baking the cake in a round cake pan instead of a sheet pan, and thus resulting in a much thicker cake. Blame can also be assigned to the blueberries which inevitably weighed down the cake, and the hazelnut cream spread over top.

However I did really enjoy the flavours. The hazelnut cream (a carryover from last week) on top gives the cake a very sweet and crisp and pleasant top crust, and the cake itself isn’t too sweet so the blueberries and the top make it a nice breakfast-y sort of cake. Or dessert-y sort of cake. Either works.

And happy Fiesta Friday! I always love FF, hosted by the incredibly hospitable (who else can have the energy to hold a party every week!) Angie, the Novice Gardener. I’m especially excited as this week I have the honour of cohosting! This is my first time, so luckily I’ll be doing so alongside Jhuls, the Not So Creative Cook, who has always been such a sweet and welcoming cohost!

If you haven’t yet heard of Fiesta Friday or gathered your courage to join, it’s the perfect week for you to start. Fiesta Friday is a chance to share something delicious (or crafty! or inspiring!) that has made your day a bit more special. Take a look at the guidelines here, link up your post at the current 71st fiesta, and be sure to link back to Angie, Jhuls and I, and tag your post with Fiesta Friday. (Doing all this will make sure you’re eligible to be considered for a feature!)

Most of all you’ll be able to join a lovely and supportive group of bloggers–and it is this which makes Fiesta Friday so spectacular.

Blueberry, hazelnut and rosemary cake

Loosely adapted from Bouchon Bakery’s olive oil cake (Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel). Makes 1 7″ cake. Use of the hazelnut cream was inspired by this beautiful (and indeed, quite ethereal) cake from Ethereal Eats with almond frangipane on top (edit: link removed as blog Ethereal Eats sadly no longer exists). Hazelnut cream was leftover from this poached rhubarb and hazelnut cream tart.

1 egg

1/3 c sugar

a few sprigs rosemary + extra

1 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

good pinch salt

150 mL 2% yoghurt

70 mL olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

125 g blueberries

1/2 c hazelnut cream (see recipe here)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 7″ circular pan with parchment and butter the sides.

Beat the egg with the sugar until thick and fluffy. Chop a couple sprigs of rosemary finely and add it to the eggs.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix together the oil, yoghurt, and vanilla.

Switch to a wooden spoon to add the flour mixture and the yogurt mixture to the eggs, alternating additions of dry and wet ingredients. Mix until just combined; then gently mix in the blueberries.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Spread dollops of hazelnut cream overtop of the cake. Finish by garnishing with a few more intact sprigs of rosemary.

Bake for around 40 minutes or until well-browned and crisp on top, and an inserted skewer is removed clean.

Let cool on a wire rack.