Integrative Assignment #2: Olive Oil Cake

1) Assumption: As a child, I only ever knew olive oil as the delicious liquid in which one dipped bread at Italian restaurants.  I had no idea it was used in so many dishes, such as baked goods.  I now see that it provides dishes such as breads and cakes with their own unique textures.

2) Dish: The name “olive oil cake” speaks for itself.  Rather than being made with butter, like most cakes, olive oil cake uses olive oil as its fat, giving it a dryer texture than cakes made with butter.

3) Chemical Analysis: Olive oil is used in cooking as a fat, being composed of triglycerides, which are esters of one glycerol and three fatty acid chains.  Since fats are hydrophobic, they are used in baking to block the formation of gluten matrices, which are formed by wheat proteins binding with water.  Preventing the formation of gluten matrices results in one’s baked good being more soft and tender.  Using oil in one’s cake instead of butter will make this prevention more likely, since oil coats the proteins in wheat flour more easily than butter does.  Proteins that are not coated end up bonding with water, holding the ingredients together and making the cake more tough and chewy.  In other words, olive oil blocks the formation of gluten better than butter does.

4) Cultural Analysis: In Italy, olive oil has been used as a fat in food for centuries, so it should come as no surprise that cakes are more commonly made with locally grown olive oil than with butter.  It is believed that the first people to use olive oil in cakes were Sephardic Jews in the Mediterranean area, as it was more accessible to them than butter, plus it was kosher.  It also helped that, unlike butter, olive oil contained no dairy, so it could be eaten with meat.  In fact, during the Spanish Inquisition, olive oil was seen as an indicator that a family was Jewish, so many non-Jews stopped using it so they would not be mistaken for Jews.  When the Sephardic Jews came to the United States, they had to stop using olive oil because it was no longer readily available.  Today, however, olive oil cake has been experiencing a rise in popularity, with chefs all around the world using it as a butter substitute for its unique flavor and texture, as well as its health properties.

5) Integration: The connection can be drawn that olive oil making cakes more soft gives the cake a more comforting feeling, a similar feeling to the one felt by the Sephardic Jews when they made cakes that were accessible and kosher.  In other words, not only does olive oil soften the cake literally, but it also softens the cake religiously, allowing more people to experience sweet desserts.  The way in which the oil blocks gluten formation is like blocking the cake from becoming non-kosher.  A warm, soft cake is like a warm, soft bed for the soul.