Orange Cake

For the last day of this week, I have a soft, moist and spongy orange cake. This recipe is a from a cookery class I attended long time ago. I was always interested in cooking and after marriage I cook one baking and one cooking class before coming to the US. After coming here, none of those recipes came out well, specially the curries and snacks. And the same was with the cakes. I do not remember if I tried this cake though. I had stacked away the recipe book and rarely refer to those recipes. Today’s bake is one from the stacked away recipe book.

I baked this cake last Friday and the outcome was very good. I ate the cake all by myself. I offered some to Mr.U and he refused. Next day when he wanted a slice, to his surprise, it was all gone. I wondered why I had not given this bake another chance sooner. If you miss those soft moist pastries from Indian bakeries, then you ought to try this cake. I did not frost the cake and ate it as it is. Spreading some whipped cream on the cake or some butter cream frosting would have been even more delicious. I made half the recipe and used a 6” round pan. A mini cake pan would have been better and the cake would have gotten some height. Pardon the images. These I am not at all motivated to take shoot pictures and am going blank when it comes to styling.

Total Time: 31 – 40 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Baking Time: 21 – 25 minutes
Yields: 6” round cake

Ingredients:

• 50 grams All-Purpose Flour (approx. ½ cup minus 1 tbsp. flour)
• 50 grams (¼ cup) Sugar
• 50 grams Butter
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
• ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• ½ tsp. Orange Zest
• ½ cup Orange Juice used in various stages of preparation
• 1 tbsp. Confectioner’s Sugar

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour dust a cake pan and keep aside.
• Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Keep aside.
• In a bowl beat together butter and sugar until light fluffy. It should take about 2 – 3 minutes with an electric beater.
• Add orange zest and continue beating.
• Add egg along with 1 tbsp. of flour beat until egg is well incorporated.
• Fold in the remaining flour. I used my beater setting to the lowest level to fold in the flour.
• Lastly add 2 – 2 ½ tbsp. of orange juice.
• Transfer the batter to greased pan and bake in a preheated 350 F oven, middle rack for 20 – 24 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean. My cake was done in 21 minutes.
• Mix confectioner’s sugar with 2 ½ - 3 tbsp. of orange juice and sprinkle it on the hot cake, as soon as the cake comes out of the oven. If the juice is sweet, skip the confectioner’s sugar and sprinkle only the juice.
• Once the cake cools, transfer the cake to a plate. I sprinkled remaining juice on the flipped side of the cake. But this is optional.

Note:

• Orange Juice – In summers you might need less orange juice in the batter.
• Cake Pan – I used a 6” cake pan and felt a mini pan would have been better. That would have given the cake some depth. A square pan would be even better to serve as a pastry.
• Serving Suggestions – I did not frost the cake but whipped cream or butter cream frosting would work great with this cake.

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