Orange Weekend Cake

Yes, well... almost 2 months have passed in the new year and this is my first proper blog. What have I been up to you ask? I've been working 12-hour days, stopped in at Bangkok for work and hurt my back early February. Chinese New Year came and went with me lying flat in bed. Sigh. I had big plans for the festive season. Oh well.

I've been thinking a lot about perfection lately. Why do we strive to be perfect anyway? Is there anyone in this world who is really born perfect; is it an obsession; does it stem from an uncontrollable part of our lives which makes us strive for perfection elsewhere? I still don't have any answers, despite the time I've spent thinking about it.

What I DO know is that, this year I'm going to enjoy imperfection. In little ways. I've started purposely not making the bed in the mornings on Saturday, embracing the fact that sometimes the icing on the cakes I make are just-not-right, leaving my work table in a mess, etc. Little things. So what if the clean clothes don't get folded the day they're taken in, so what if the recipe didn't work out... so what? Life's not perfect and I am perfectly imperfect. How wonderful! 

I've just gone back to baking, my favourite thing in the whole world. I decided that this is the year of imperfect-looking, homely cakes. To start off, I decided to make Fanny's weekend cake again. Though this time I tweaked the recipe a little and ate it with cream and marmalade. Divine.

Orange Weekend Cake

4 eggs
250g caster sugar
2 teaspoons orange essence

180g plain flour
40g cornflour
2 pinches baking powder
150g thickened cream
50g salted butter, melted
softened butter, extra for piping

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Butter and flour a loaf tin.
2. Mix the flours and baking powder. Sieve this thrice.
3. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whip until thick and doubled in size.
4. Fold the dry ingredients very gently into the egg mixture.
5. Then pour a little of this onto the cream and melted butter, mix well, and transfer back to the main batter mix. Fold in gently.
6. Pour into the prepared tin, pipe a line of butter across the cake; and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.