There are so many fantastic baking blogs out there that I don’t feel the need to make a lot of pastry contributions. Once in a blue moon I like to whip up something sweet—mainly when I’m in one of those cranky moods—but the cookie and cake thing just ain’t my cup of tea. Probably a DNA mistake of sorts on my part. Between you and me; I’m a reasonable cook, but a horrible baker. I’ll spare you the cookie and collapsing pie stories. They would seriously put me to shame.

What I do like are cookies or cakes with a slight savory twist. Think of it as a wink to the more traditional baking, like my Italian cheese cookies. Now this is an absolutely gorgeous looking savory cake. A friend of mine emailed me the recipe and I got really excited at the idea of serving this for Christmas, rather than the more traditional and often boring Christmas cookies. Sorry to all the cookie lovers out there but if I see another glistening Christmas tree shaped cookie, I’ll drive a nail through my foot. As much as I love Christmas time, I cannot stand those trite cookies. There! I’ve said it!

Are there typical Christmassy foods that make you want to scream? 

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 roasted red bell pepper
4 oz black olives
6oz feta cheese
2 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup olive oil
5 tbsp milk
butter (for greasing)
4 eggs
pepper
salt



Directions:

Line a cake tin and lightly grease the paper. I really should bake more, if only so I could make more use of this gorgeous antique cake tin.

I roasted a red bell pepper earlier. Covered the bowl with plastic wrap and allowed it to cool off.

Sieve two cups of flour and 2 tsp baking powder over a big bowl.

Break 4 eggs (room temperature) over the bowl as well.

And mix them in with the flour.

Add 5 tbsp milk and mix it up some more. The batter was kinda firm here, I wasn’t really sure what to make of it.

Pour in the oil and blend it in. The dough was still very, very firm here.  That was my cue to call my friend and see if this was going to be disastrous. She reassured me that it was supposed to look like this and everything would be just fine. I’m sure that had nothing to do with me threatening her within an inch of her life.

Finely chop all the ingredients and add them to the batter. Season with black pepper and a good pinch (roughly 1/4 tsp) of salt.

Carefully combine all ingredients.

Transfer the batter to the cake tin and use the back of a spoon to level it.

Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 350F (180C) for 55 minutes. Until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

This was surprisingly good. Great, even! However, I felt it was more bread-like than cake-like, really. Especially with a little pesto rosso spread on top! Next time I might just add some sauteed shallots, or sun-dried tomatoes to the batter. Maybe even a few sprinkles Parmesan cheese. Definite do-again.

Ehhh sweetie? The cake was superb! And honestly, I really didn’t mean it when I said I would sell your entire chick flick movie collection— including brand new widescreen & home theatre—if the cake didn’t turn out okay!

Kay’s Recipe Card

Click here for printable size.