Triple Orange Cake

The plan for last weekend was for several ramekins of Banoffee Pie. Unfortunately, the ripe bananas in the fruit basket met their untimely demise when a hungry person indiscriminately devoured them. Needless to say, that was the end of the Banoffee plan for the weekend. 

There were however, oranges and lemons in the basket. That, and about a heaping tablespoon worth of Tiptree Orange Marmalade with Malt Whiskey in the fridge was what inspired this cake.

My first thought was to make them into little cupcakes, but then I spied my 6-cup Bundt tin sitting quite unloved in a kitchen cupboard and decided to give it an outing instead. 

Now, I have never had much success baking in this particular Bundt tin in the past. I have always suspected that it had something to do with either the oven temperature being too high or the cake batter too watery. So this time, I kept the temperature low and the batter thick. It turned out perfect!

I wish I had the whole cake to show you. Unfortunately, another hungry person in the house lobbed-off slices of this cake while still warm from the oven and therefore the cake too met an untimely demise. 

TRIPLE ORANGE CAKE

125g Salted Butter, room temperature

125g Raw Sugar

1 large Orange, zested and juiced

1 rounded tablespoon Marmalade

1 whole Egg and 1 Egg Yolk

150g organic Self-Raising Flour

1/8 rounded teaspoon Baking Powder

A little Orange juice and some Icing Sugar, mixed together to form a thick, white icing

Preheat oven at 110 Celsius. Grease a 6-cup Bundt tin thoroughly with butter and dust with flour. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream Butter, Sugar, Orange Zest and Marmalade with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in Eggs, beating well after each addition.

Gently fold in the Flour and Baking Powder by hand into the creamed mixture. Gently mix in just enough orange juice to produce a slightly thick batter.

Scoop batter into the the prepared Bundt tin and bake at 140 Celsius for about an hour or until a skewer poked through the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for about 20 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack, allow the cake to cool completely before placing on a serving plate and drizzling on the Icing.

Orange Butter Biscuits and my new toy

These biscuits were a trip down memory lane. My mother used to make them in her light blue Sawa 71 for years until it broke in the late-80s.

After she passed on, I found the Sawa 71 tucked away at the back of her baking cupboard. It was in pristine condition and kept in its original box. However, the Sawa was well and truly broken.

There was nothing left to do but throw it away, despite not wanting to. Still, I wanted to hang on to it in some way, so I kept the metal discs which used to press out all my favourite biscuit shapes as a child. Hoping that one day I would be able to use it to press the same shapes out again. Of course, I put it away and forgot about it until... today!

Last week on a visit to Pastry Pro for some vanilla, I picked-up a Wilton Comfort Grip Cookie Press. Yesterday I tried it out with a simple butter biscuit recipe which worked beautifully.

This evening, just as I was about to put the washed and cleaned Cookie Press away, I remembered the metal discs I'd saved. They fit the Cookie Press perfectly and I am SO pleased. I've washed and cleaned them all. They are now lying on a towel air-drying in the kitchen. I cannot wait to use them. Perhaps next weekend when I have some time again.

Meanwhile, here's the recipe for yesterday's butter biscuits. It is quite a versatile dough, so you can flavour it as you like. I'm going to try making some chocolate biscuits next!

ORANGE BUTTER BISCUITS

Adapted from Obsessed with Baking

8 ounces Salted Butter, just softened

3 ounces Icing Sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 Egg Yolk

10 ounces Plain Flour, sifted

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste

Grated zest of 1 large Orange

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 10 seconds. Add in salt, egg yolk, essence, paste and zest and cream for 5 seconds. Gently fold in flour by hand, just until all the flour is absorbed into the creamed mixture. Set aside. Follow manufacturer's instructions to prepare the Cookie Press with your favourite shaped disc. (You can change disc shapes in between batches) Fill the Cookie Press with the prepared biscuit dough and press out shapes accordingly onto a baking tray. Chill the pressed out dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 - 25 minutes until the biscuits are barely golden. (I baked my biscuits at 145 Celsius and switched the trays around midway for even baking) Leave to cool completely on the tray and store in an airtight container.  

Happy Birthday Mummy!

One day late. I'd never baked for her birthday when she was alive, but I'd like to think that it isn't too late. Started at 7.30am this morning and done two hours later. I'm happy with them. They're homey and pretty. Beautiful cakes for a beautiful soul.

MUMMY'S BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES

Cupcakes

Grate the zest of a Whole Orange into a large bowl. Add in 4 ounces of Softened Butter, 2 ounces of Caster Sugar and 3 tablespoons of your best Marmalade (homemade is what I used). Mix well with an electric mixer. Add in 2 Whole Eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Fold in 4 ounces of Self-Raising Flour and a 60g packet of Ground Almonds. When mixture is thoroughly combined, divide into 12 cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes at 160 Celsius. Cupcakes are done once a skewer poked through the middle comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Icing

Take some sieved Icing Sugar, Softened Butter and Orange Essence. Mix well together with a spoon. Icing should be just the right texture for spreading with a pallet knife and not runny. Spread the icing over the cupcakes and flatten it out over the cakes. Finish off with a sugar flower each and a light sprinkling of tiny silver dragees.

Happy Birthday Mummy!

Orange Brandy Marmalade

This is a deep, dark, bold, bittersweet marmalade with a bit of bite.

I'm speechless. I thought I'd have something witty and clever to say in this post but nothing's coming to mind right now. So this is it. I tried my hand at marmalade and on the third attempt got it right. The first was delicious but didn't set. So I went out to get some pectin. I added it to the second batch, which was a teeny tiny test batch and it ended-up setting like concrete. I then did some more research on marmalades online and made the third batch... which succeeded! 

I found Cara Cara oranges by accident and used them instead of the regular Navel or Valencia varieties. The flesh of the Cara Cara ranges from a deep pink to a light red. It makes a lovely jam. No point looking for Seville oranges as there's none to be had in this country.

I am well-pleased, though I do not for one moment think this victory is all mine. I had a muse you see.  His name is Paddington Bear. (I knew I did good by kidnapping him for awhile) Before she complains long and loud, I should publicly thank his owner for allowing me to kidnap him for a bit. So Miss Paddington... I thank you from the bottom of my heart for loaning him to me. A bottle of successful marmalade awaits you.

There he is... my darling muse... and my precious sugar termometer

ORANGE BRANDY MARMALADE

Loosely based on Delia Smith's Dark, Chunky Marmalade

1.35 kg Sunkist Cara Cara Oranges

2 Lemons

3 litres Water

400g Demerara Sugar

600g Fine Granulated Sugar

100ml Brandy

Slice all the fruit in half. Place in a large, deep pot and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 2 hours. Top water occasionally back to 3 litres (you have to eyeball this) every now and then. After 2 hours, remove from fire, let it cool completely, then separate the fruit from the liquid.

Scoop out the flesh of the fruit (including any seeds), along with some of the softened white part of the rind.

Put all this onto a piece of muslin/cheesecloth. Hold up the edges of the cloth and twist it to into a secure ball. Now, squeeze the ball with all your might to get every bit of liquid in it out. Once done, add this liquid back into the pot. Discard the contents of the cloth.

Cut up the rind according to your taste i.e. fine or rough cut. add this into the pot as well. Cover the pot and leave it to stand overnight.

The next day, put the pot on low fire, attach a sugar thermometer to the side of the pot and add in the sugar. Do not let the liquid come to the boil before all the sugar is melted.

Once the sugar is all melted, raise the heat slightly, bring to the boil and let it simmer away for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent any sticking to the bottom of the pot.

When the temperature reaches 100 Celsius, watch the pot carefully. The mixture will start boiling furiously up the sides of the pot. Stir to keep it in control. Once the temperature reaches 105 Celsius (jam setting point), remove the pot from the fire, skim off the scum and let it stand for about 10 minutes. Add the brandy. Stir a little to mix in the brandy and distribute the peel. Pour into bottles and screw the lids on tight.

Let it cool overnight. You can either eat it straightaway or let it sit for 2 weeks in a cool, dry place for the flavours to mellow.

Equipment Needed
Stainless steel heavy-bottomed large pot or a Maslin pan
This is important because once the liquid reaches a rolling-boil it will start climbing up the sides of the pot and could flow over the sides. The liquid will be very hot and could cause a terrible burn if not careful.

Sugar thermometer
It is the easiest way to tell that the jam has reached its' setting point.

Glass bottles or jars with lids

I re-use shop-bought jam jars and their lids. Boil some water just before the 3 hour mark while the jam is almost reaching setting point. Pour the boiling water (fresh off the fire) on the jars and lids. Dry off with a clean cloth. Place all the bottles into the microwave on high heat for about 1 minute. Remove and use.

*A note about the online research. There are so many sources to refer to. Too many to remember and mention. It is best to read as many as possible before embarking on jam-making. It's a science of its' own.  Google 'Marmalade' and you'll find them all.



Calm after the storm

It has been a tough start to the new year. Between my last post and now, I've been tired and frustrated at work, came close to throwing in the towel and was stricken with dengue. The dengue was the last straw. Things are a lot clearer to me now than ever before. I'm in an oddly calm place these days... which is a bit scary but there's no explaining it.

During the dengue, my taste buds went on a little holiday by themselves. I suppose it was the fever that chased them away or it could have been the medication. They're coming back a few at a time (must have been a lovely holiday place) so I can taste more today than I could a week ago, but it's still not quite there yet.

One of the few things I've been craving since 'our friends' have started coming back is the flavour of orange. It's very odd, but they're the flavour-of-the-month for me right now. I've juiced them, put them into brownies and made cakes with them. Out of the three, my favourite is juicing and drinking the luscious, zesty juice fresh. The other is eating them in this cake.

This is the latest Orange Butter Cake in bad lighting, while I was having some for breakfast. Yes, I eat cake for breakfast. It's called 'having your cake and eating it'.

Now, I've made this cake countless time since discovering the recipe on Ju's website, and in that time I confess, I've not always stayed true to the recipe. I've forgotten to add the salt; used self-raising flour instead because I'd run out of plain flour; dumped all the flour in by mistake on a day I was tired and attention-deficit; added 13 tablespoons of milk instead of the called for 12; used the zest of only 1 orange; used the zest of up to 4 oranges in sudden fit of abundance and the list goes on. I've even found that the orange flavour and colour of the cake changes subtly depending on what variety of oranges you use for the zest. Yet, every single time - despite a difference in texture and flavour - it has yielded a perfectly lush orangey delight.

Here's the recipe, measurements as is on Ju's website, written out the way I usually make it. Ju... a word of thanks from the bottom of my heart for this excellent recipe.

Orange Butter Cake

Adapted from The Little Teochew

195g Plain Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

170g Butter, softened

225g Caster Sugar 

1 large Egg, plus 1 large Egg Yolk

1 1/2 tablespoons Orange Zest

12 tablespoons Milk

Grease and line the bottom of a round cake tin (18cm across x 7.5cm high) with butter and baking paper. Sieve Flour and Baking Powder together. Set aside.

Place the Sugar and Orange Zest in a large bowl. Using a regular teaspoon mix and mash the Sugar/Zest together until thoroughly combined. The Sugar should have turned orange when done.

Add the Butter into the Sugar/Zest and beat until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer.

Add in the whole Egg and Egg Yolk into the creamed mixture. Beat only until just combined.

Gently fold the Flour in by hand, alternating with Milk in three batches. Make sure the Flour is completely absorbed into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake at 160 Celsius for about 1 hour or until a skewer poked through the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cake sit in the tin for about 20 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to continue cooling.

Wait patiently until the cake is completely cool before cutting. It is a delicate textured cake. If you're greedy, love eating warm cake and aren't planning to serve it to guests, go ahead and slice of an end bit to stuff into your mouth once it's on the wire rack like I frequently do. Who cares if the cake looks mutilated after that right?

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.

An eggless flop

The photo of the cake on this blog looked SO good! I scrolled down for the recipe, read through it and sat back with a thought... "Icing sugar in a pound cake? Will it work?" I'm used to baking with castor sugar in cakes, not icing sugar. Icing sugar was for other things. (The original recipe actually says powdered sugar which is icing sugar here in Malaysia.) 

I did some research on the Net and found that you can make a pound cake with icing sugar. In fact, there are more than a couple of recipes for it. I found other websites that say you cannot use the two sugars interchangeably, while others say you can but within reason. 

For awhile, I toyed with the idea of substituting the icing sugar with castor sugar. Castor sugar weighs approximately a hundred percent more than icing sugar. The basic rule is 100g icing sugar = 200g castor sugar. Oh my... such complication. So I stuck to the icing sugar in the recipe and cut the recipe into half... just in case.

It's a good thing I did, because it flopped! While the sides had a lovely cake texture and flavour, the middle was worse than the Sweet Orange Cake from yesterday. Boo hoo hoo...

Can you see the moist layer at the bottom?

My mistake I think. it was rising so well and I had to open the oven door half an hour through the baking time to check if it was done. Or did I use the wrong baking tin size? 

Rising so well in the oven

Note: I didn't have curd in the fridge, so I made my own buttermilk with the milk, water and the juice of a lemon. That was the only change I made to the original recipe. You can find the recipe at Swapna's. If you do get around to trying it, let me know. I'd love to know how it turns out. 

The last orange...

Update: 17 August 2010 - This cake actually tasted so much better the next day.

There was one last orange sitting all by its lonesome self in the fruit basket. So I used it up in my latest attempt to find a light, fluffy eggless cake. 

You'll just have to bear awhile with my current obsession with oranges. I promise the next post will be a flavour far from orange as it can get. Oh wait... I was planning to make Orange-Cardamom macarons. Oh well... we'll see what I can sneak in by way of a different flavour between all the orange.

Meanwhile, I found this recipe here. I also found a few others with ingredients that sounded like they would have made a lovely, soft cake, but this is the one I tried first. 

I changed it a little here and there, so I could use up the lonely orange, substituted milk for the water called for in the original recipe and added some double-action baking powder. 

How did it turn out? It was certainly moist as I expected, but I found the texture a little sticky and pudding-like. Perhaps from the milk, oil and baking powder addition? I'm not sure. I'd like to try this again with water, melted butter and no baking powder... but that's another day and post.

The Orange-Cardamom Tea Cake from the weekend gets my vote for being eggless and delicious.

It didn't cut as cleanly as the Orange-Cardamom Tea Cake

Sweet Orange Cake

Adapted from Bored But Busy

1 large orange

180g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp double-action baking powder

200g castor sugar

6 tbsp canola/sunflower oil

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp orange essence

Milk

• Preheat oven at 140C.
• Grease and line a 19cm diameter round cake tin. 
• Grate the rind of the orange and set aside.
• Squeeze the orange juice into a measuring cup. Top-up with milk to make 1 cup of juice/milk mixture.

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda thrice into a large bowl.
2. Stir in the sugar and grated orange rind with a wooden spoon until well-mixed through.
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
4. Pour in the juice/milk mixture, oil, vinegar and essence.
5. Beat for 5 seconds with an electric mixer until all the ingredients are just combined and there are no lumps.
6. Pour batter into the prepared tin.
7. Bake at 160C for 40 - 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. 
8. Cool for about 20 minutes in the tin.
9. Run a small knife slowly around the cake to loosen the edges before turning out carefully onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Luscious citrus

When I first saw this recipe, I got really excited. Olive oil and citrus. Totally yum. Totally easy. So I tried it. That very night. No regrets.

It may look dense and heavy from the photos, but in reality, this cake is a light, moist, citrusy affair that is perfect washed down with a hot cup of tea.

Notes:

The original recipe is right when it says that the cake tastes even better after two or three days, as the flavour melds and mellows. So if you can wait, please wait! You'll be well-rewarded. Or you could do as Molly says and steal slices from it every day of the week.

Here's my version of this recipe.

MARMALADE CAKE

Adapted from Orangette and the Boonville Hotel

1 small to medium-sized Orange

1 Lemon

170g Almond Nibs, toasted

120g Plain Flour + 1 tablespoon Baking Powder, sifted twice

4 large Eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

300g Caster Sugar

160ml extra virgin Olive Oil

Icing Sugar, for serving (optional)

Put the Orange and Lemon in a small pot, cover with water and bring to boil over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Drain and cool. When cool, cut fruits into half and remove seeds. Discard Lemon pulp. Put the halved Orange and Lemon rind into a blender. Blend until you get a thick paste. 

Preheat the oven to 140 Celsius. Place Almonds on an ungreased baking tray and put in the centre of the oven. Toast until they look golden and smell warm and toasty (about 10 - 15 minutes). Do not be tempted to remove them from the oven before they are a nice medium brown colour. Set aside to cool completely. When cool, pulse (in short, quick bursts) the Almonds to a fine powder in a dry grinder. Set aside.

Set the oven to 160 Celsius and grease a 7 inch round cake tin. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine Eggs and Salt. Beat until foamy. Gradually beat in the Sugar. Fold in the Flour mixture gently. Add fruit paste, Almonds and Olive Oil and beat on low speed to just incorporate. Do not overmix. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool cake in its tin on a wire rack before turning out. 

Dust cake with Icing Sugar before serving. Store the cake at room temperature, covered with a plastic wrap or in an airtight tupperware.

I'm back... with the perfect cake for afternoon tea!

Okay, so I've been away for awhile. I've been to London, Paris, Dubai and come home to unpleasant news and a broken heart.

I baked my heart out for quite awhile but am all better now. It took seven loaves of bread, three types of brownies, four types of chocolate chip cookies, chewy toffee cookies, lemon sables, korova cookies and little 'punishments' to chase the blues away.

Unfortunately, I did not stop to take pictures and blog of the lovely things I made during the whirlwind of mending my heart.

Now, I am back to baking and cooking for sheer pleasure. As we speak, there is a lovely Lemon-Orange Loaf in the oven quietly baking away, just in time for the hungry mouths that await it at tea time.

(My aunt got this recipe from one of our local newspapers recently. She can't remember which one, so you'll have to forgive me for not posting it here. We have also left out the icing recipe which came together with that of the cake to keep it simple, less sweet and perfect for Saturday afternoon tea.)

LEMON ORANGE LOAF

130g Butter

110g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 Eggs

Grated rind of 1 Orange

Grated rind of 1 Lemon

240g Self-Raising Flour, sifted

50ml UHT Milk

30ml Orange Juice

30 ml Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 170 Celsius. Grease and flour a 9 inch loaf tin.

Cream Butter, Sugar and Essence until light and fluffy. Then add the Eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in Orange and Lemon rind. Fold in sifted Flour alternating it with combined Milk and fruit Juice. Should the batter begin to curdle, sprinkle in a little Flour. You should begin and end with Flour.

Transfer mixture to the prepared cake tin and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until cake is cooked through when tested with a skewer. Leave the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.