Gateau a L'Orange De Madame Mahjoub - Orange Cake

A recipe I am posting, untried by me, for ZWT. I found this on Kitchen Chick's food blog, under her North African section, and here is what she states about the recipe: "From Nancy Harmon Jenkins's book Essential Mediterranean comes Madame Mahjoub's orange cake recipe. This plain-looking cake is a delight in disguise and perfect with tea." "The original recipe calls for the Maltaise de Tunisie blood oranges and claims that they give the cake a beautiful red blush."

• Ready In: 1 hr 5 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 1 9 inch cake

Ingredients

• 2  small blood oranges (or thin-skinned juice oranges, organic preferred)
• 1⁄3 cup olive oil
• 2  cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
• 4  large eggs
• 1 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  almond extract (optional)
•  powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour your cake pan.
2. Wash oranges thoroughly to remove pesticide and wax residue. Slice tops and bottoms off of the oranges to remove the thickest part of the skin and discard. Chop oranges into chunks and discard the seeds. In a food processor, process the oranges into a chunky puree. Add the olive oil slowly and continue to process until it is well blended.
3. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs thoroughly and gradually add sugar until mixture is thick and lemon-colored. Add vanilla and optional almond extract.
5. Fold about a third of the flour mixture into the eggs and beat until mixed. Fold in about a third of the orange mixture and beat. Continue to add flour and orange mixture until everything is combined. You'll have a chunky batter.
6. Pour batter into cake pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until cake is brown on top and has pulled away from the sides of the pan.
7. Let cake cool. If you used a spring form pan, remove the sides. If not, then let cool for five minutes then remove from the pan and allow it to finish cooling. After it has completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar.