This cake came about when my husband brought home a big bag of bergamots from Tunisia. Initially excited (as I tend to get when discovering cool ingredients), I quickly realized that apart from drinking Earl Grey tea and using its essential oil, I had never used this fragrant citrus fruit before. So I went through a delightful discovery stage that went from making syrup to madeleines and muffins, until I finally found a gluten and sugar free recipe worthy of sharing with you: yogurt olive oil bergamot cake.
I was inspired by Goop’s recipe for lemon yogurt cake, which I played around with with great results. Although bergamot looks like a flattened crinkly lemon, it is a variety of orange and you can definitely smell the wonderful aroma when the cake is baking in the oven. Its fragrance adds an adult sophistication to this honey-sweetened piece of heaven, and the olive oil and yogurt bring an incredibly moist texture, making it the perfect tea time treat. It is also one of the few baked goods I know that is even better the next day.
Note: If you don’t have bergamot on hand, worry not, orange also gives incredibly good results
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup full fat yogurt
- ½ cup honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp bergamot juice
- zest of 1 medium bergamot
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients – flour, powder and salt – and set aside
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all the other ingredients. Delicately fold them in to the the dry mix.
- Pour the cake batter into an 8-inch round pan that has been lined with an oiled parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until it golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.
