Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Cake

Hello foodies,

I've been wanting to try out a new mould from our range for a while. It's the filled cake mould.

With this one, I'd like to share a recipe for an olive cake with a cream cheese and sun-dried tomato insert.

Perfect for an aperitif or as a starter with a small salad on the side. :-)

To make a 25 cm cake you will need:

Cake batter

- 240g flour

- 4 eggs

- 160g grated Gruyère

- 140g whole milk

- 140g olive oil

- 14g baking powder

- 100g black olives

Insert

- 100g cream cheese (Philadelphia)

- 75g heavy cream

- 50g sun-dried tomatoes

- 4-5 small chive sprigs

- One sprig of parsley

- Salt and pepper

Let's start by preparing the cake batter.

Cake batter

In a bowl, crack 4 eggs.

Using a whisk at maximum speed, whip the eggs until you get a light and airy mixture.

Add 140g whole milk and 140g olive oil, mix for 30 seconds at medium speed.

Pour 240g flour and 14g baking powder into the previous mixture.

Mix everything at maximum speed for 5 minutes.

This will activate the gluten, so the cake rises well during baking.

Meanwhile, slice 100g black olives into not-too-thick rounds.

For this recipe I chose to use black olives, but you can easily replace them with green olives. Whatever you prefer! ;-)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan-assisted.

The cake batter is almost ready — add 160g grated Gruyère and the 100g sliced olives prepared earlier.

Using a spatula, mix everything together well.

As mentioned at the start of the recipe, I'm using the filled cake mould here.

This mould is brand new in our range and I love the idea of an insert inside a cake. And I'm not disappointed with the result. :-)

You can also use it for sweet cakes. To give you recipe ideas, we even have a book on cakes with inserts in our online shop. ;-)

Back to the recipe! Prepare the mould by spraying it with release spray.

It's important to cover every surface, otherwise the cake will be difficult to unmould.

I recommend removing the insert and spraying it separately, so there's release spray everywhere and no risk of it sticking when unmoulding.

Now, pour the cake batter into the mould, then place it in the middle of the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Once the 35 minutes are up, check the baking with a knife.

If the blade comes out clean, the cake is done. However, if batter sticks to the blade when you pull it out, the cake is not fully baked — in that case, put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Then check again.

Let the cake cool for about 1h at room temperature before unmoulding.

After 1h your cake will be lukewarm. Start by carefully removing the centre tube, then take the cake out of the mould.

Place the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool completely before filling it.

Now let's prepare the insert.

Cream cheese and sun-dried tomato insert

In a bowl, place 100g cream cheese. Here I used plain Philadelphia.

Using a whisk, mix the cream cheese until you get a creamy texture.

Finely chop 4-5 chive sprigs and one sprig of parsley, then mix in.

Cut 50g sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces. Not too big, otherwise you'll have trouble filling the cake.

Add the sun-dried tomato pieces to the cream cheese and herb mixture.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour 75g heavy cream into a jug and whip it into a fairly firm whipped cream.

Add the whipped cream to the mixture and fold everything together with a spatula until you get a smooth, homogeneous mass.

Pour the mixture into a piping bag.

Quick tip: Place the piping bag in a jug so you have both hands free to fill it more easily. :-)

Cut the tip of the bag large enough for the sun-dried tomato pieces to pass through, but be careful not to make it larger than the insert opening.

Last step of the recipe: filling the cake. Stand the cake upright and fill it using the piping bag.

Tap the cake gently so the filling spreads evenly throughout.

And there you have it, our cake is ready to enjoy.

It keeps for about 2 days in a cake box in the fridge.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. At home, this savoury cake was a unanimous hit! ;-)

Wishing you a lovely Sunday.

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.