citrus & olive oil cake

here’s a cake for the here and now. it’s been three weeks since life as normal suddenly came to a halt. 

it was a thursday. we came into work like normal that morning. a friend texted me for drinks early the next week. the township called to inform us that schools would be operating as usual through the weekend, but to expect closure on monday. by 12:15pm, we were being told that schools would close at midday and that all parents should come pick up their children by 1:00pm. schools were then closed for what they told us would be two weeks. after two weeks, the officials said, after two weeks they would reassess.

two weeks later, there wasn’t even a need to follow up.

what had seemed distant at the beginning of january – a respiratory illness that seemed either not too bad or else very deadly – completely upended life as we knew it. friends of mine in the service industry were laid off with the promise of a job if the restaurant was able to reopen. my neighbors moved out very suddenly one day. the streets suddenly became devoid of cars, and people, wearing masks or with mouths wrapped with bandanas, started to take wide looping paths to avoid others in the street.

this olive oil cake requires mostly pantry ingredients: flour (if you have it), olive oil, eggs, citrus, a bit of milk, some orange liqueur. our fridge starts out each week full to bursting, so it was nice to finally empty it out a bit.

we may have at least another three weeks yet. while we’ve been inside, the cherry blossoms have blossomed and fallen. going outside now feels like a treasure, and I almost miss my nearly two hour work commute. citrus always reminds me of bright, warm days, and I’m certainly looking forward to sunnier days ahead.

makes one 9-inch cake