The best thing I bought during the pandemic was a bright yellow Le Creuset loaf pan. The pan is so versatile and I’ve used it to make bread, cakes, truffles and polenta. I love giving people loaves of cake and bread as Covid gifts. And, with Purim starting in a few days, I think that in addition to hamantaschen, loaf cakes would be a delicious addition to mishloach manot this year. Loaf cakes are a simple, unassuming and easy. I also love using tahini and will find any opportunity to use it in a recipe. I adapted this recipe to make this light, moist, not overly sweet cake. Below the recipe I also included links to my other Purim recipes.
Orange, Tahini, Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups flour (all purpose or fine. I used a mixture of all purpose and corn meal)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup liquid–a combination of orange juice and plant milk. I used 1/2 cup of each but reduce or increase the orange juice depending on how strong you want the flavor
2 full tbsp orange zest
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp black sesame seeds (optional–I like the color contrast in the cake). Use 1/2 tsp in the batter and sprinkle 1/2 tsp on top
Preparation
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Pour into a parchment paper lined loaf pan (I put olive oil on the parchment paper). Sprinkle 1/2 tsp sesame seeds on top.
- Bake for about 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and let cool
Other Purim recipes
Tahini hamantaschen
Hamantaschen filled with jam and date syrup
Tahini chocolate truffles
Vegan malabi (gifted in small individual jars–would be great for Purim)
Date nut “truffles”
Sugar wafer cookies
Purim Sameach!