Olive oil cake with glace fruit

Or, in this case, olive oil slice without glace fruit or the recommended chocolate drizzle. Believe me, both would have been entirely superfluous, as my version was very wicked indeed – more like Greek/Middle Eastern/Indian (can't quite put my finger on what I mean) confectionary than the innocent-looking cake in the delicious. picture.

Anyway, it's from the 'wicked' section of the mag and the ingredients are: extra-virgin olive oil, plain flour, baking powder, fine semolina, eggs (no – replaced quite randomly with thickened cream, because I'm not afraid of upping the fat content), caster sugar, amaretto (the love affair continues), icing sugar to dust and glace tangerines and melted chocolate to serve (no need).

I'm used to the way eggless cakes rise less, but this came out looking very dodgy indeed, as well as being clearly a slice rather than a cake. Basically it was leaking olive oil, which is not what anyone expects of a cake. At this point the bin looked like the sensible option, but I persisted. After much blotting with kitchen paper it looked better. I sliced it into small pieces, confectionary style and bit in gingerly – and I lerved it! Others – especially those who demand lightness from their treats – might not have but I love solid, syrupy sweet things to eat in small bits with tea or coffee (especially coffee, this one). My only disappointment was that the amaretto taste was subtler than I had imagined.

Verdict: a qualified success and clearly nothing like the original.

I'd be interested to hear what the egged version is like.