Olive Oil and Yogurt Cake

Here's a wonderful recipe courtesy of Pichet Ong and his disastrously divine dessert cookbook, The Sweet Spot which feasts upon Asian-inspired confections. Baby and I had sampled this cake at Ong's restaurant Spot and were so compelled that we just had to try it on our own! Instead of orange marmalade, we used peach jam and it was in fact all very peachy!

Olive Oil and Yogurt Cake
Adapted from Pichet Ong's The Sweet Spot
Makes one 9x13 -inch cake, about 24 servings

Ingredients
1 table spoon unsalted butter, at room temperature for greasing the pan
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
3 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
3 1/4 cups sugar
9 large eggs
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 tablespoon fleur de sel or other mild sea salt, such as Maldon

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9x13-inch cake pan and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. Put the yogurt, sugar, eggs, orange zest, vanilla, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes. Turn the speed to low and whisk in the flour mixture until well blended, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir the batter a few times.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 cup of the batter with the oil until smooth and homogeneous. Add the oil mixture into the remaining batter in a slow, steady, stream, folding continuously.
5. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
6. While the cake is baking, stir the orange marmalade together with 1 tablespoon water.
7. As soon as the cake is done, brush the top with the orange marmalade mixture glaze and sprinkle with the fleur de sel. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.