Orange Cake - A Treat Indeed!!

As a child I don't remember the effort my mom used to put into baking cakes, but as I have mentioned in my previous posts, it was a time I cherish a lot. I remember that she used to dry out rind from oranges and then later use this in cakes. Sometimes she used to candy the rinds which used to taste wonderful. Last year I tasted a wonderful birthday cake, baked by my friend. It was an orange cake, with zest and some candy  and it brought back a flood of memories of orange cake that mom used to make. So I decided to bake one myself. Now, I believe if you find a good recipe, you should stick to it. So after doing a bit of research and looking at the ingredient list of several recipes, I decided to modify the butter cake recipe and convert it into an orange cake. Substitutions were simple and I must say it was an astounding success. I got positive feedback from family and friends. I baked this cake again recently and I baked two layers. I froze one to eat later and we finished the other one pretty quickly.

The recipe below has proportions for two cakes. For one layer of 9 inch cake refer to the butter cake proportions. Instead of milk use orange juice. Also, add the zest of one orange for a single layer as well as two layers.

Ingredients
2 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour (maida)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter - room temperature
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
zest of one orange
1 cup orange juice
some butter or oil spray to coat the baking tin
some all purpose flour to dust the baking tin

Method
Grease two baking tins with some butter and dust with some all purpose flour. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together and keep aside. In another bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Beat it till the butter is fluffy. Add one egg at a time to this and beat each egg into the mixture till it is nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the batter and fold it in. Then add half of the orange juice and mix. Alternate between the juice and dry ingredients till they are all incorporated into the batter. Then fold in the orange zest so that it is spread into the batter. Pour half the batter into one tin and the rest into the other. Tap the tin or use a spatula to spread the batter uniformly.

Bake the cake at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Use a knife and insert it into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready. If not, bake for a few more minutes.

Take if out and let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10-15 mins. Then invert the pan onto the cooling rack and slide the cake out. Let the cake cool completely before icing  it.

Tips
Wrap the cake in foil and then some plastic wrap before you freeze it. A cake will stay in the freezer for upto a couple of weeks to a month.