Garcia de la Cruz infused olive oil

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Happy 150th birthday, Garcia de la Cruz! For the family’s women dominated story, please read below. Meanwhile, let’s have a piece of these dramatic cakes from Jenefer Taylor of Malibu! Jenefer’s cakes to a 150th anniversary and Taste of Spain celebration hosted by the Spanish olive oil company García de la Cruz, which produces the oil she uses.

They are both made with García de la Cruz extra virgin Olive oil. A representative of the American Heart Association noted that olive oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is certified as a heart healthy food by the AHA.

Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil made them healthy already and she uses only organic ingredients. Taylor made a gluten-free chocolate cake is rich with natural ingredients and dense.

Jenefer’s cakes for the 150th anniversary and Taste of Spain celebration was by the Spanish olive oil company García de la Cruz, which produces the oil she uses.

Her vegan white cake was dense and lemony. jenefer flavored it with lemons from her garden. And both cakes were dramatically decorated with her garden-fresh flowers. “I love to bring nature inside,” she said.

More of her cakes are showcased on her website, //www.bluemmalibu.com. Directions to make a cake are also on the website. Garcia de la Cruz is also currently sponsoring a contest that includes among the prizes a Bluem Malibu olive oil cake kit with dry ingredients. It includes baking instructions and fresh flowers for decorating. 

Malibu-based baker Jenefer Taylor, who made them, uses only organic ingredients, including extra virgin olive oil. This makes her cakes really healthy, because olive oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is certified as a heart healthy food by the American Heart Association.

The white cake is flavored with lemons from her garden, and both cakes show her taste for garden-fresh decorations. “I love to bring nature inside,” she said.

Other prizes include Melissa’s Produce, Thermomix USA and Chef Katie Chin, plus a year’s supply of organic extra virgin olive oil from García de la Cruz. 

For information on how to enter, go to the Amazing Giveaway Alert posts on the García de la Cruz Olive Oil Facebook and Instagram pages. The contest continues through March 31.

The Garcia de la Cruz company was founded in 1872 when Federico Serrano Fernandez-Negrete and his wife Adelaida Fernandez-Cuella inherited a grinding mill. The history of this family business began with the purchase of 300 hectares of land in an area known as “El Cerillo”, which they planted with olive trees.

In a country marked by poverty and in which the role of the woman was relegated to the home and domestic chores, Adelaida Fernandez-Cuella took the brave decision to put herself at the head of the business while her husband, a lawyer, dedicated himself to his profession and to the public administration. (See top photo right)

It was in that primitive grinding mil, – with its mule driven stone, a beam press, ceramic decanters, the harvest in the storehouse – that production of olive oil began in home industry style.

Of the three children in the marriage, it was daughter Guadalupe Serrano Fernandez-Cuellar who took charge of the family business. On the death of her husband in 1931, she took over the management of all the family properties. The situation for the family was affected by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

After the war shutdown, Adela Aguilar Serrano, daughter of Guadalupe, restarted the grinding mill in 1945 and, in 1950, they modernized the system of production.

Adela Aguilar Serrano married Francisco Garcia de la Cruz. They had twin sons, born in 1933, Manuel and Francisco, who took over the company in 1975.

Demand grew and with it the need to expand the business, and in 1980 the grinding mill was moved from the centre of the town to its present site at 23 Reyes Catolicos Street. By 1998, the year in which Francisco Garcia de la Cruz retired, thousands of olive trees had been planted which guaranteed the finest quality olive, harvested with care and attention, for the olive oil production.

With the arrival of the new century, Fernando and Eusebio Garcia de la Cruz, the fifth generation of the family, took charge of the business.

With over 145 years experience in the business, Aceites García de la Cruz, has the capacity to export to over 40 countries across the five continents. USA, Japan, China, Italy and France are its main markets. 

Celebrate this anniversary by entering the contest with a wide array of prizes: