Strong To The Finish: Olive Oil Cake

This was my first time baking anything on my own, as far as I can remember. Baking involves a certain alchemy and hidden process that I find completely counter-intuitive, the translation between what you mix up in a bowl and what you pull out of an oven is difficult imaginative leap for me. The olive oil cake below is, admittedly, not a very flashy cake recipe, but it served as a birthday cake for someone who is now closer to 30 than 20, so more toned down tastes were required. What resulted was a good, versatile cake, chosen largely for the novelty of using olive oil as a flavor.

Ingredients
Butter (to grease pan)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 inch pan. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
• Use electric mixer to beat olive oil with 3/4 cup of the sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks and beat until thick.
• Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) until smooth. Stir in orange juice and zest.
• In separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, then mix in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until it has soft peaks[1]. Then stir eggs whites into batter, which is going to be very thick.
• Pour into pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes.
  
• Frost or glaze as you like.[2]
  

[1] I only found out after I was done what "peaks" meant, something like the surface holding it shape somewhat.

[2] I say as you like, particularly, because I underestimated my abilities and made a pretty lame sugar & milk based frosting. Mostly, I would say don't over do it, if you want to appreciate the olive oil and orange flavors.