Sluttishly Easy: Apple & Olive Oil Cake

Olive oil isn't an obvious cake ingredient, but used as a substitute for butter it can make a lovely moist crumb. The subtle olive flavour works particularly well with fruit. This is a really nice afternoon-tea kind of cake, not too sweet and sickly, just lovely and plumptious and full of soft apple and sultanas. I like to think it's one of my five-a-day but I may be fooling myself...

This is another recipe from my favourite book of the moment, Ottolenghi The Cookbook. In the book, the cake is served with lashings of maple syrup cream cheese frosting, but I went for a more virtuous sifting of icing sugar and the result was still delicious.

APPLE & OLIVE OIL CAKE (Serves at least 12 greedy people)
You'll need:

• A 20cm cake tin, baking parchment and melted butter for greasing
• 80g sultanas
• 280g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120ml olive oil
• 160g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 medium eggs, plus 2 medium egg whites
• 3 cooking apples
• Zest of one lemon
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Make it!

• First grease and line your tin with baking parchment. I know this is a faff, but it really pays to do it properly! Pre-heat the oven to 170c (reduce this if you have a fan oven, or turn the fan off).
• Put the sultanas in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak.
• Peel, core and dice the apples into 1cm pieces.
• Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.
• In another bowl, beat together the oil and sugar. Add the 2 whole eggs and vanilla, and beat together some more.
• Drain the sultanas. Mix them into the wet mixture, along with the apple and lemon zest.
• Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
• Whisk the egg whites in a separate, very clean bowl. You can do this in a mixer, or just with a large balloon whisk. They should get nice and foamy and white.
• Gradually fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
• Pour into the tin and bake for about 1 1/2 hours. Test with a toothpick - it should come out clean.
• Leave to cool, then sprinkle over icing sugar.
• Devour, and probably come back for seconds.