Olive Oil Cake by Giada De Laurentis with Almond and Citrus

Simple get-togethers with friends and family at home can bring a whole dimension to your social life, and save money, too. If you've developed a socializing style that you'd like to cut back on, you can ease into the change by taking a cue from old-fashioned coffee klatches. It's easy, and delightful, to focus on making one special dish - such as baking a cake from scratch - and having friends over for coffee. One cake that's become especially popular to bake from scratch is Giada de Laurentis' Almond Citrus Olive Oil Cake. Not only does this cake deliver all the rich health benefits of olive oil, baking this cake from scratch is easy and rewarding!

What are coffee klatches?

A "coffee klatch" is a casual get-together for coffee and conversation, usually accompanied by a few light eats. Food for a coffee get-together is endlessly adaptable to your tastes, your guests, and your budget. From sweets to savories, store-bought to homemade, the only limit on what to serve at a coffee klatch is that the food should not overwhelm the coffee.

A good rule of thumb to keep coffee as the star of the show is: the sweeter the food, the smaller the individual portions should be. Coffee cakes typically are not overtly sweet. This subtlety serves to allow the flavor of the coffee to highlight the sweet finish in the cake and maximize its own robustness at the same time.

While no one need be dogged by tradition, food traditions often become established because, like mac-n-cheese and pork-n-beans, they just work out well the majority of the time. For coffee get-togethers, it usually turns out very nicely when a not-so-sweet, or delicately flavored, cake is served. For dazzle, add a drizzle of dark chocolate syrup, a splash of vanilla sauce, or whipped cream and fruit on the side.

A plate with a few small, maybe even fancy, cookies or chocolate bon-bons served with the cake will make your coffee klatch even more festive---without changing the casual atmosphere or adding a lot of extra work or worry on your part.

Baking cakes from scratch

Baking cakes from scratch, rather than using a mix in a box, is a culinary treat more and more people are experiencing. Cookbooks, such as Cakes from Scratch in Half the Time, reviewed by Baking Bites, streamline recipes for beginners.

Once you try it, and discover how simple, fun and deliciously rewarding baking from scratch can be, you may never go back to boxed cake mixes for special occasion desserts. And people swear they feel the love in a cake made from scratch! That "little extra love" really warms up the atmosphere and the conversation at a coffee klatch.

Olive Oil Cake by Giada

Some sweet creations seemingly take on a life of their own, and so it is with Giada de Laurentis' Almond Citrus Olive Oil Cake. This subtly sweet cake with buttery almond flavors and an orange and lemon zest finish is perfect. It is special enough to give you respite from the routine, but it doesn't shout at you, either. Many reviewers have commented that Giada's Olive Oil cake tasted like cakes back in the "Old Country," Italy.

A major item in the Mediterranean diet, olive oil is rich not only in flavor, but in health benefits. Using olive oil in scratch-baking is a delicious and easy way to add this healthy food to your diet. Baking a cake from scratch, such as Giada's Almond Citrus Olive Oil Cake, is a warm and delicious way to say "I'm so glad you came over for coffee."

*** For a variation on the olive oil cake by Giada, try this recipe for Ladi Tourta, courtesy of Cat Cora on the Food Network show, Melting Pot.

Sources:

"Almond Citrus Olive Oil Cake by Giada de Laurentis," Food Network.

"Cakes from Scratch in Half the Time," Baking Bites.

B. A. Rogers, "The World-Wide Love Affair with Olive Oil," Associated Content.

"Ladi Tourta by Cat Cora," Food Network.