Orange Olive Oil Cake and Cranberry Sorbet, a match made in heaven!

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
During this pre-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas, pre-I'm-going-crazy season, it's nice to stop the panic shopping or turkey stressing and take some time to have some great friends over for lunch — which is what I did today. Doing a little lunch thingy is so easy if you plan a simple menu and do as much as possible ahead of time. Today's dessert, after a lunch of smoked corn chowder, caesar salad, roast salmon, julienne carrot and zucchini sauté, and chimmichuri was an orange olive oil cake (a recipe from Mailino in NYC) topped with a not-too-sweet cranberry sorbet. Seasonal and delicious without being too obvious. Here are the recipes, which I have been told will work at any altitude.

Mailino’s orange olive oil cake

Makes one 9-inch round cake
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup Grand Marnier

Procedure
Heat the oven to 350°. Oil, butter, or spray a 9-inch cake pan that is at least 2 inches deep with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. (If your cake pan is less than 2 inches deep, divide between 2 pans and start checking for doneness at 30 minutes.)

In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In another bowl, whisk the olive oil, milk, eggs, orange zest and juice and Grand Marnier. Add the dry ingredients — whisk until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, invert the cake onto the rack and let cool completely, 2 hours. Nice if you dust the top with powdered sugar!

Cranberry Sorbet

Ingredients
1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries (about 4 cups, thaw if frozen)
5 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice or Yuzu juice
1/3 cup fresh orange juice

Procedure
Boil cranberries, 2 cups water, and 1/2 cup sugar in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have burst, about 15 minutes. Purée cranberry mixture in batches in a blender until as smooth as possible (use caution when blending hot liquids). Force through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids, and chill, covered with plastic wrap, until cold, about 2 hours.

In the meantime, bring remaining 3 cups water and remaining 2 cups sugar to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then remove from heat and cool syrup 30 minutes.

Stir together cranberry purée, sugar syrup, and citrus juices and freeze for 1 hour in a plastic container. Then take a whisk and break up the mixture. Then let freeze overnight. Next day it will be hard, but easy to cut apart. Break it into chunks and purée in food processor till smooth, then refreeze. Should be taken out of freezer 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 10 to 12 servings (about 1 1/2 qt)