My mother-in-law sent me a cookbook by postal mail when we were living in the States. All because her son expressed his love for savoury cakes that he could only have back in his parents' home. The book, small and slim, has no less than seventy recipes for cakes both savoury and sweet. Not that I am supposed to make every single one of them but rather, for me to look through and compare variations of savoury cakes, so that I could come up with one I could claim ownership of.
In general, to compare making a savoury cake to that of a sweet one, there is only one phrase to sum it all up: same-same but different. Obviously there is no sugar in the former, while butter makes way for olive oil, sunflower oil or even white wine. Instead of chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, ingredients such as ham, sausage, shrimp, cheese, olives, capsicum, zucchini are used. There is even one recipe in the book with chicken gizzard.
But thank God my husband prefers simple combinations of ham, cheese, olives for the cakes, just so he could pair it with something else on the side. Just a few suggestions here: lightly tossed greens, chopped salad like tabbouleh, coleslaw, warm tender carrots for a light dinner, or rock melon with prosciutto on a super-hot day.
I will be lying if I tell you it is easy to make these. (I will share with you my mistakes at the end of this post.) But they are nonetheless edible as long as you pop a nice homogenous batter into the oven. It can be done with a balloon whisk or wooden spoon - you just need to work your arm muscles crazily for some ten seconds when incorporating the oil. Remember to hug the mixing bowl with your left arm to keep the bowl still while stirring with your right hand, and then repeat the process changing arms. Crazy, I know, but it costs nothing.
In general, to compare making a savoury cake to that of a sweet one, there is only one phrase to sum it all up: same-same but different. Obviously there is no sugar in the former, while butter makes way for olive oil, sunflower oil or even white wine. Instead of chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, ingredients such as ham, sausage, shrimp, cheese, olives, capsicum, zucchini are used. There is even one recipe in the book with chicken gizzard.
But thank God my husband prefers simple combinations of ham, cheese, olives for the cakes, just so he could pair it with something else on the side. Just a few suggestions here: lightly tossed greens, chopped salad like tabbouleh, coleslaw, warm tender carrots for a light dinner, or rock melon with prosciutto on a super-hot day.
I will be lying if I tell you it is easy to make these. (I will share with you my mistakes at the end of this post.) But they are nonetheless edible as long as you pop a nice homogenous batter into the oven. It can be done with a balloon whisk or wooden spoon - you just need to work your arm muscles crazily for some ten seconds when incorporating the oil. Remember to hug the mixing bowl with your left arm to keep the bowl still while stirring with your right hand, and then repeat the process changing arms. Crazy, I know, but it costs nothing.
The Frenchinos Savoury Cake
Serves 6
Ingredients:
150 g all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon for later
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
150 ml extra-virgin olive oil
150 ml milk
(Optional) Salt and pepper, to taste
75 g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (pat dry first if previously soaked in oil)
75 g kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
150 g ham, diced
100 g parmesan cheese, shredded
Method:
1. Grease and flour a 28-cm loaf pan. Preheat the oven at 180°C.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and eggs thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the oil and incorporate it until a homogenous batter is obtained. (This is where you work the hardest. It's downhill all the way after this.)
4. Add the milk and continue to stir until the batter is smooth. Add a pinch of salt and pepper if you wish.
5. In a smaller bowl, shake the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, ham and cheese with the tablespoon of flour.
6. Fold the ingredients from step 5 into the batter, and then pour the batter into the loaf pan.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Serves 6
Ingredients:
150 g all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon for later
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
150 ml extra-virgin olive oil
150 ml milk
(Optional) Salt and pepper, to taste
75 g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (pat dry first if previously soaked in oil)
75 g kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
150 g ham, diced
100 g parmesan cheese, shredded
Method:
1. Grease and flour a 28-cm loaf pan. Preheat the oven at 180°C.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and eggs thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the oil and incorporate it until a homogenous batter is obtained. (This is where you work the hardest. It's downhill all the way after this.)
4. Add the milk and continue to stir until the batter is smooth. Add a pinch of salt and pepper if you wish.
5. In a smaller bowl, shake the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, ham and cheese with the tablespoon of flour.
6. Fold the ingredients from step 5 into the batter, and then pour the batter into the loaf pan.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
This is how JL likes his savoury cake for a meal. Not so much the coleslaw at the back, but he loves, loves, loves olives so much he'd have more olives on the side even though there're already olives in the cake. Very particular, though, the man only digs the Kalamata and Manzanilla varieties. But yes, he's so crazy about olives he insists on having an olive tree in the house. Not far from my cherry tree, perhaps, hurh hurh hurh...
Now, the mistakes, mishaps, misfortunes, mis-appointments...
Look carefully at the picture above. Nice cake, right? Do you see a sunken hole right along the top? That's the day I learned something new. My baking powder had expired. The cake rose up very nicely in the oven but before I could gloat over it, it sank back right in shortly after it came out from the oven. True to what most people suggested on the internet, I checked my baking powder.
Look carefully at the picture above. Nice cake, right? Do you see a sunken hole right along the top? That's the day I learned something new. My baking powder had expired. The cake rose up very nicely in the oven but before I could gloat over it, it sank back right in shortly after it came out from the oven. True to what most people suggested on the internet, I checked my baking powder.
My MIL said there could be other reasons too underneath sunken cakes. It could be that the batter was too wet, as in off-balance between wet and dry ingredients, or that too much baking powder was used, or that the cake hasn't fully cooked, or even as simple as the oven door being opened a split-second during the baking process. There you go, take it from the retired home science teacher and full-time family chef.
How about this one? It is nicely risen, but if you look at how brown it is and how much the brown part has grown inwards, you can probably guess that it's been sitting in the oven a few minutes too long. It tastes good nonetheless and is more than edible.
As for this one, it rose perfectly and is not burnt. This is a basic ham and cheese cake. But because I cut the ham in rather large cubes, and probably because I did not shake them in flour before adding to the batter, they sank during those 50 minutes. Which is why you only see the ham at the bottom half and the cheese on top.
Would you agree now - the savoury cake is simple and yet each time you make it, there will be something particular which you could improve on. They are all edible, so nothing for you to fear. But the day my cake comes out perfect, like really, perfect, I will take at least twenty shots of it.
Meanwhile one just has to keep on trying.
Would you agree now - the savoury cake is simple and yet each time you make it, there will be something particular which you could improve on. They are all edible, so nothing for you to fear. But the day my cake comes out perfect, like really, perfect, I will take at least twenty shots of it.
Meanwhile one just has to keep on trying.
