Growing up with a Mamma who was an excellent cook, we had largely home made everything. But the cakes and biscuits we did have were nothing fancy, because they were things my mother learnt in her own mother’s kitchen. Looking back at my own cookery books, from my own adolescence, I was struck by how basic the recipes were.

I had a Katie Stewart cookbook which I thought was the height of sophistication but looking back at it now, the ingredient list was small and simple. Everything has evolved to be so much more sophisticated, and complicated now. That’s not a bad thing.

In February I went to visit my north Italian family in Parma. Romana, my cousin, had made this cake. It was plain and simple but we loved it, especially my youngest who ate it for breakfast and for tea.

It’s very usual to have such a cake as this and it be presented at various times during the day, until there’s nothing left. It’s part of its life journey that it should go slightly stale towards the end, so you can refresh it by giving it a hot dunk in morning caffe latte or tea-time lemon tea. I asked Romana for the recipe and here it is, I’ve put its most basic incarnation here plus a few small additions (in brackets) which make it a bit extra special. But don’t veer too far from the original. This cake is not fancy, doesn’t want to be and therein lies its beauty.

Oven to 180C you need a tin of about 9″/23cm, base lied with baking parchment.

300g of 00 or plain flour (I sometimes use 200g white flour and 100g wholemeal)
180ml of whole milk (semi skimmed will do)
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
100ml of olive oil (you can use extra virgin if you are so inclined, I’ve also used 50ml of lemon infused/50ml of normal olive oil)
3 teaspoons of baking powder
100g chocolate chips. This cake really benefits from those store board tiny chocolate chips but I have so much chocolate that I just chop up that)
(A really fabulous addition is to use Bakery Bits’ Fiori di Sicilia essential oil, this elevates it massively as well as smelling amazing and making the cake taste SO Italian.)

Mix the caster sugar with the oil, add the eggs, then the flour, then the milk and baking powder. Finally mix in the chocolate chips and the Fiori di Sicilia if using. Put in the tin and bake for about 40 mins. Check after 30.

This is great for taking to work/school in lunch boxes as it’s a very well behaved cake when travelling.

Also if anyone is interested in the approx macros for this whole cake they are:
Total weight: 931g
Protein: 60.2g
Fag: 157.7g
Carbs: 430.2g

Fibre: 29.5g
Sugars: 189.6

Update August 2025.

I now make this in my mini loaf cake tin to make..mini loaves and they are so cute and take about 20-25 mins.