So many times I hear how perfect my food always looks & tastes, how perfect my technique is etc. Well, I’m here to tell you that it just isn’t so.

Having been gifted this beautiful bowl and the citrus in it I decided that I needed to bake – one of my favorites – olive oil, lemon, poppy seed cake. This is a winning recipe that I’ve developed over the years, but not to be deterred by perfection already achieved I decided to tinker a bit more. Fatal error #1 not making notes before I started. Cut down on the sugar even further than in the past – sure why not just a bit. Replace some of the flour with almond meal – sure, go for it. Swap out some of the olive oil for lemon juice to get more citrus punch – hell yes!

Everything was looking good, but something tasted off in the batter as it went into the oven. (Yes, I’m a batter licker) One piece in the recipe kept picking at my brain: “Sift dry ingredients”, but there had been nothing to sift. Then I looked back at the document still open on my iPad – 2½ teaspoons baking powder!! Oy! There was a doubled batch in the oven – a cup and a half of good olive oil, some pretty pricey local milled flour, etc. NOT a cake mix from the 99¢ Store…

So back into a bowl went anything that had yet to start to cook (I caught this 5 minutes into the bake). Added the missing baking powder and beat it for all I was worth. Into fresh pans and back it went into the oven.

Not too bad after all, but just as a kicker, the baking powder had a June 2014 expiration date* on it so though the loaves rose it was a bit sad. The cake is delicious, crisp at the edges and moist. Just don’t ask me to duplicate it because I can’t.

*Baking powder really does loose its oomph, so if your baking seems off check that.