For Mother’s Day this year, we invited both our mothers and my husband’s siblings over for a late lunch. All my siblings live out of state, all of Andy’s live here, hence his siblings were invited, and mine were not. It’s difficult when people grow up and family moves away; isn’t it?
Anyway, everyone accepted the invitation, so we had to come up with a killer menu. Honestly, I LOVE hosting! It is a lot of work, but I have so much fun (and stress) planning, prepping, cooking and baking. I probably get on Andy’s nerves up until the event, but deep down I think he enjoys hosting also.
For lunch we made Everything Cheddar Tomato Bacon Grilled Cheese. It’s fancy grilled cheese with everything bagel seasoning. We baked them in the oven open faced. We added chicken to one as well.
Everyone loved it. For dessert, which always has to be the best part, I baked a Strawberry Chamomile Olive Oil Cake with honeyed ricotta. Olive oil? Yes, olive oil. Let me tell you about
this cake.
Is it good? Yes. Do you taste the olive oil? No. Was it heavy and thick? No. Was it dry? No. This cake was all things wonderful. Delicious flavors, beautiful cake, fluffy texture, I could have eaten the whole thing myself, and cake is not my favorite dessert so that is saying something. To say this cake stole the show would be an understatement. In reality I shy away from strawberry things. I personally think it is overdone/overused. Strawberry salad, strawberry salad dressing, strawberry drinks, strawberry desserts, the list goes on and on and on. But reading this recipe, because I read it first unlike the salty cookies, I thought “this makes sense.”
I’m sure you are wondering where both the chamomile AND the olive oil come in the recipe. The chamomile is a nice, light touch. The strawberries are soaked in a chamomile honey and used as the topping. So nothing crazy there, granted that’s not something I would have thought of on my own. The olive oil though, the olive oil replaces butter. No butter in this recipe at all. Do you know the nice thing about that? It doesn’t feel or look greasy. If you put a piece of this cake down on a paper towel, I don’t think the towel would have much oil left behind. Which seems weird since it is an olive oil cake, and I didn’t try it, but I stand by that statement. Really, I just love this cake.
The honeyed ricotta actually made up the “frosting” for the cake. You could not even tell it was cheese people! A little lemon zest and honey and blend the cheese with those until it’s smooth and creamy and you have a delicious (and healthyish) frosting. I was pleasantly surprised. If you can't tell, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing!
We can all once again thank Half Baked Harvest for both the sandwich AND the cake. Like I keep saying, she’s a winner; everything I’ve made that has come from her has been a hit. And usually very easy to make. This cake is a keeper for sure.
On another note, I have been getting order requests!!! ☺ Yay!! I love everyone’s support and enthusiasm! I cannot wait until I can start consistently filling these orders. As more people find out about this, it is difficult to manage my baking with my full time job at the fire depment. I have a wonky schedule, but I so want to provide baked goods to everyone who orders! Specific date requests for orders unfortunately cannot be guaranteed; again blame the fire department schedule. That being said I will work with you for alternative dates, and please don’t give up.
Anything on here is fair game! I will make it if my schedule allows and work with you for pick up options! ☺Submit a form on the bottom of the website. That allows us to email back and forth regarding orders. OR follow us on Facebook or Instagram and message on those platforms. I do my best to check those often.
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