Appetizer Cakes for Festive Days

The first one can be whipped-up fast in one bowl and served warm, with drinks, while the other is a classic 'quick bread' as these cakes are often called. Both are French.

I chose to bake this easy appetizer cake in a round pan with a whole mostly because I wanted to serve it on the olive-wood cake stand I had ordered to our friend Panos.

Between a few cool and hopefully rainy December days on the island we usually have some wonderfully sunny, pleasant mornings when everything seems crisp and clean. We often have a glass of wine outside in the veranda before getting inside for lunch.

Real winter in our part of the world usually begins after the New Year and later in February. There is no guarantee, of course, but in most cases Christmas happens to be pleasant and sunny as some of my photos of years past attest.

Once, quite unusually, we had a group for Christmas, and served a more elaborate meze spread in the veranda with stuffed mushrooms, lemon-dill-scallion marinated trout, and of course homemade bread.

The basic idea for the first, quite substantial appetizer cake comes from Les Cahiers de Delphine, the always interesting weekly newsletter which used to be free but is now for subscribers only.

Contrary to most cakes, both sweet and savory, this needs only one bowl where flour, eggs, cheese, nuts etc. are simply stirred together before the mixture is poured into the pan.

Of course, I made quite a few changes, using local green olives instead of the black from Provence, and scallions, instead of the chives that are not available here. As I always do, I substituted olive oil for the butter, and grated aged graviera cheese for the parmesan.

I also increased the amount of pine nuts and sunflower seeds and added rosemary which we have plentiful in the garden and gives a lovely aroma to the cake. I baked it in a pan with a hole in the center, but you can of course use a loaf pan, or a simple round 8-inch pan. This appetizer cake is best slightly warm, or just cooled.

Savory Cake with Olives, Cheese, and Pine Nuts

At least 8-10 generous pieces

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup olive oil

5 eggs, lightly beaten to mix

1/3 cup white wine

150 grams grated parmesan, or aged graviera or aged cheddar

About 1 cup (180 grams) pitted, sliced green olives –you can use black, if you like

5 scallions, white plus most of the green, finely chopped

1 small red pickled pepper chopped (optional)

About 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves, or more, to taste

1/3 cup (about 50 grams) toasted pine nuts and more to top the cake

½ cup sunflower seeds

Line the pan you intend to use with parchment paper. And preheat the oven to 375 F (200 C).

In a bowl toss the flour with the baking powder. Add the olive oil, the eggs and the wine and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, just to incorporate.

Add the cheese, the olives, the scallions, and the pepper, if using, along with the rosemary. Keep some pine nuts to top the cake and add the rest to the mix, along with the sunflower seeds. Stir a few times to mix all the ingredients together, and transfer to the prepared pan.

Even the top with a spatula, sprinkle with the reserved pine nuts, and bake for about 35 minutes or more, testing with a knife to see if it is done, as you do with sweet cakes.

Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes, before carefully unmolding and cutting to serve. This very easy appetizer cake is best slightly warm, or just cooled. But you can wrap the leftover in plastic film refrigerate, then warm a bit in a low oven covered with parchment paper.

A Fragrant Quick Bread/Cake

“This is a wonderful and easy everyday treat “from France, where savory loaf cakes are often served with drinks before dinner,” writes Greenspan introducing the recipe she published in New York Times Cooking. She starts with soft goat’s cheese that I cannot get here, so I decided to try the recipe with feta, and it worked fine.

I have only medium-small eggs from our neighbors’ hens so I increased the milk to 2\3 cup, and used the goat’s milk we drink with our coffee. Also, I forgot to get parsley from the garden, so I omitted it –will probably add it next time.

Rosemary and thyme, as well as the tangerine zest give it great aroma and complement beautifully the sweetness of the figs. “If you’d like, use olives or dried tomatoes instead of figs, basil instead of parsley, lemon instead of orange,” Greenspan suggests;

She also notes that one can “experiment with other cheeses,” and this is exactly what I did. “The loaf is pleasantly crumbly, and best enjoyed cut into thick slices,” she concludes.

Feta, Fig, and Herb Savory Cake

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Serves 8

4 moist, plump dried figs (such as Kalamata), cut into 1/4-inch bits

⅓ cup/20 grams finely chopped fresh parsley (optional –forgot to add it and didn’t miss it)

1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

1 ¾ cups/225 grams all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ -1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 medium eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup/80 milliliters whole milk, lukewarm (I used goat’s milk)

⅓ cup/80 milliliters olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

4 ounces/115 grams feta cheese cut in small dice

Zest of 1 clementine or 1/2 tangerine, or small orange

Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat the to 350 F (180 C). Line with parchment paper an 8- to 9-inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl, toss together the figs, parsley, if using, rosemary and thyme; keep at hand.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Working in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, then whisk in the milk, oil and honey.

Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mixture, and, using a sturdy spatula, stir until the dough is almost blended. You’ll still see streaks of flour, and that’s fine. Scatter the fig mixture over the dough, along with the feta cheese. Grate the zest of the clementine or tangerine over the cheese. Using as few strokes as possible, stir everything together. Once again, it might not be perfect, and, once again, that’s fine.

Scrape the dough into the pan, and use the spatula to poke the dough into the corners and to even the bumpy top. Bake for 34 to 38 minutes or until the top is golden, the cake has started to pull away from the sides of the pan, and, most important, a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Unmold the cake onto a rack, turn it right side up and let it cool. You can serve the cake when it’s slightly warm (it’s not so easy to cut then, but it’s delicious) or when it is at room temperature. Cut into thick slices. Wrapped well, the cake keeps well for 3-4 days, if you can stop eating it…