ORANGE CAKE WITH CARAMELISED ORANGE

The first time I tried to bake an Orange Cake, I messed it up. Instead of beating the eggs with a beater/whisk, I used the mixie and the cake fell flat. L This was about 3 years ago and I hadn’t baked an orange cake since that disastrous episode.

The Cosmic Egg

I had many oranges at home and for my parents’ anniversary, I decided to bake them an Orange cake. This was a different recipe from the one I’d tried earlier. The earlier one had a stronger flavour of orange in it but this one was more moist and soft. (I suppose it’s because of the addition of buttermilk in this recipe)

Do your cakes crack on top when baking? It’s either due to the oven being over heated or excess leavening agent (baking powder or baking soda) in the batter. My cake cracked on top. (I might have added extra baking powder) Since this was a cake for an occasion, I couldn’t leave it with a cracked top. So, I decided to caramelise some oranges and place them on top. J

This cake is very, very light, airy and moist. It forms a lovely brown crust on top. You can see bits of the orange zest in the cake. The cake has a subtle hint of orange. The caramelised oranges are tender, juicy and sweet (the pith doesn’t taste bitter). You can have them with the peel. I’ve adapted the recipe for the caramelised oranges from Nigella’s recipes. I’ve retained the pith and the peel. Some of the other recipes also call for toasting these caramel soaked oranges in the oven but I skipped that step. As I was typing this post, I saw Rachel Allen’s recipe and she uses unsalted butter in her caramel mixture.

This cake will make your kitchen smell delicious.

ORANGE CAKE WITH CARAMELISED ORANGES

Ingredients:   

                                                                                  

For the cake

Flour- 1 ½ cups

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Baking soda- ¼ tsp

Salt- ½ tsp

Sugar- 1 cup

Eggs – 2

Buttermilk – 100 ml

Unsalted Butter - ½ cup

Zest of one orange ( 1 heaped tsp)

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Orange juice – ½ cup

For the caramelised orange

Orange – 1

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – ¼ cup

Cinnamon – a pinch

Method:

1.      Pre-heat oven to 180C.

2.      Cream the butter with sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3.      Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4.    To make the Buttermilk – Add 1 tbsp white vinegar or freshly squeezed lime juice to 100 ml milk and set aside for half an hour.

5.      Add the buttermilk and vanilla extract and beat again. (The mixture will appear curdled. Do not worry)

6.      Add the orange juice and zest.

7.    Incorporate the dry ingredients into the batter and beat well. (The batter will now be thick and fall in ribbons )

8.      Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until done.

9.      For the caramelised orange: Cut the orange into thin slices and keep aside with the juice.

10. To make the caramel, put sugar and water into a saucepan and swirl (not stir) a little to dissolve the sugar. Add a pinch of cinnamon powder.

11. Then slowly bring to a boil without stirring, until syrup becomes a dark amber colour.

12. Tip in the oranges (plus juice, if any) collected, into the caramel and coat the slices in the caramel and then quickly pour the contents on a flat plate.

13. Keep the plate in the fridge to chill.

14. After 10 minutes, place the orange slices on the cake and pour the liquid on the cake.

15. Done.

Look what I found in the garden today 😊

                                                           

OATS COOKIE

Of all the cookie recipes that I have, this is my favourite. I got this recipe from my aunt who bakes these cookies for most weddings. They are light, airy and crunchy and disappear within seconds. I would recommend making two batches of these. I made 18 cookies of the size shown in the picture and had only 3 remaining for the next day.  It didn’t help that Skip kept popping one into his mouth each time my back was turned to click a picture!

Cookie dough coated with Oats

These cookies don’t spread, as you can see from the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures (ensure that the quantity of the butter doesn’t exceed that of the flour).

These cookies aren’t made of oats/oatmeal. They are just coated in oats and then baked. You could make these plain without the oats but the toasted oats add that additional crunch to the cookies.

Enjoy them plain or with chilled milk shots!

OATS COOKIE (MAKES 18 COOKIES)

Ingredients:

Unsalted Butter (at room temperature) – 50 gms

Powdered Sugar – 50 gms

Refined Flour (Maida) – 75 gms

Baking Soda – ¼ tsp

Salt – ¼  tsp

Oats – 50 gms

Method:

1.      Mix butter and sugar well.

2.    Sieve flour, salt and baking soda and add to the butter mixture. Mix them to make the cookie dough.

3.      Make walnut sized balls, flatten and coat in oats.

4.      Bake at 160C for 15-20 mins.

5.      Done.

Recipe notes

·     The oven’s temperature and timing would vary as per your oven’s specifications.

·   You’ll know the cookies are done when they have puffed up and browned a bit. The cookies will be soft even when done and will harden upon cooling.

·     If you feel the dough is too soft to be shaped into a ball, you can add some more flour or you could also refrigerate the dough for half an hour until it hardens.

·     Please note that the dough IS very soft and needs to be handled gently while coating with oats.

Look what I found in the garden today ⌣