Orange Cake

08.12.2008

Orange Cake

I made this recipe a LONG LONG time ago... I mean months ago - but I happened to stumble across it again and remembered how FANTASTIC it was!! This is one of those recipes that the mere thought of it makes you salivate! It is simple, delicious, fresh (ok, so not exactly the cozy, spiced, autumnal dessert that you may be craving - but a definite tastebud waker-upper!) and moist. The cake has a lovely crumb, delicate - but can absolutely stand up to a serious cream cheese frosting!

oh was this ever good!

You see, the reason why a) I haven’t posted ANYTHING since august, b) have let technical problems ravage my site (inability to comment...sorry! I’m working on it - but you’re emails are wonderful!! Thanks) and c) I had to resort to using an ancient recipe that was collecting dust in my files is because of university. Not only am I a new student but I’m also in rez! NO OVEN!!! It’s killing me!! and rez food - are you kidding me? Gross to put it nicely! Living on campus - no, living in a dorm BITES THE BIG ONE!! That’s ok, I’ve got a new mantra: You can bake in 5 weeks, you can bake in 5 weeks... I’m counting down the days!!

You should see the list of recipes I want to try out! I think I’ll likely gain 100 pounds over the winter break - I mean, I have to make up for 3 1/2 months without baking, plus have to stock pile for the next four months...

a few things I’m itching to try:

Vegalicious Brownies

Baked’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

Leite’s Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate Fudge Pots

Cinnamon Buns

Cornmeal Muffins

Hempseed and Blueberry Corn Muffins

Salted Peanut Chews

Mango Mascarpone Mousse Cake

and the list goes on...

Orange Cake

adapted from What’s For Lunch, Honey?

250 g flour

4 tsp baking powder

40 g fat-free* vanilla pudding powder (*or regular)

340 g sugar

3 eggs

80 g margarine

2 Tbsp orange zest (or one big orange)

1 cup orange juice (fresh is best! use that orange you just zested - no waste!)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat your oven to 350℉. Prepare a 8” round cake pan - or two (I’m pretty sure this gave me two cakes with that size of pan...it has been while... so do two just to be safe, you can judge once you pour it out to see if you need the second or not, but I’m almost positive you will! Yay for more cake!) Line your pans with parchment, cut circles for the bottoms and ring around the sides.

Sift the flour, baking powder and pudding powder into a large bowl. With an electric mixer (easier - makes it fluffier too! But by hand is good to - no pressure!) combine the rest of the cake ingredients with the dry ingredients. Batter should be smooth and pretty thick.

So now here come the part where you figure out how many cake pans you actually need!

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan/pans, smooth the surface with a spatula (off-set or otherwise)

Bake for roughly 50 minutes, or until lightly golden and toothpick test yields a clean result, or maybe even a few little crumbs (so it doesn’t wind up too dry! That would be disastrous!)

Let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove from very CAREFULLY - it’s a delicate little beauty, easy to break (again, disastrous!). Let it finish cooling on a rack, and remove the paper (well, I suppose you would want to do that before you let it finish cooling - makes more sense!)

While it cools prepare the Cream Cheese Frosting. I added a little orange zest to it, but really finely grated, not the long strand kind!

Once completely cool slice the cake/cakes in half (really this part is up to you! Do it or don’t... It’ll be luscious anyway you slice it - ugh, sorry for the LAME pun... I’m tempted to delete that!). Spread a generous layer of frosting in the middle, followed by another artery constricting layer all over the rest of the cake!

It’s worth it!!

Njuta!!

(that is Swedish for enjoy - yep, that’s right I’m taking Swedish at University!!)