I Love Olive Oil Cakes

I know I have written about olive oil cakes before. In fact, more than once, which is why I hesitated writing about them again. But I simply had to. How could I not, when I keep finding such great recipes for them? Like this one... 

Heidi Swanson's take on Kim Boyce's Rosemary Olive Oil Cake
Click the link for the recipe on Heidi's blog or find it in Kim's (wonderful) book: Good To The Grain

Beyond tasting good... beyond the lovely moist texture... beyond their rich flavor that is not too sweet, olive oil cakes will always be a go-to dessert for me for the following two reasons:

Olive oil instead of butter... Don't get me wrong, I love butter and truly believe that everything really IS better with butter. But the simple fact is that sometimes I run out of butter and can't run out to the store to get more. That's when olive oil cakes really shine (of course, mayonnaise cakes or sour cream cakes would theoretically shine also in this same circumstance, but olive oil is something I never seem to be out of).

Super fast to make... What's not to love about a cake that takes only a few minutes to prep? It's not quite a "one bowl cake", but it's darn close. Fussy frosted layer cakes are truly wonderful, but they don't fit in with my day-to-day cooking. This cake does.

My Notes: I used 1 cup of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips (instead of the pricey stuff) and added a couple tablespoons of very finely chopped walnuts. I put my tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet to make it easier to get it in and out of the oven (my tart pan was full to the brim). If you're iffy on the whole rosemary idea, feel free to substitute something else like orange or lemon zest.