O’ Sweet Orange Cake

Syrupy, sweet and sticky. A little tinge of sour goodness to excite the taste buds and a balmy orange fragrance expires throughout. The soft moist cake drenched in orange syrup melts warmly in your mouth; down it with a glass of milk and your midnight cravings are satiated. Mmm..this is a true red carpet treatment for your senses

I am talking about an orange cake that I baked out of whim. I was never one who enjoyed orange cake but after being coaxed by a friend into trying the recipe from Chubby Hubby’s blog on Damien Pignolet’s Serious Orange Cake recipe, I was converted. I would blame my lack of enthusiasm, initially, to a bad experience. I had an orange cake when I was a little girl and it overwhelmed my taste buds with bitterness I stayed away from any type of orange cake since then, till a few months ago.

This is definitely a cake recipe everyone should seriously consider keeping in their books because it is so delicious.

You can check out the recipe at Chubby Hubby’s blog because I followed it precisely. But for convenience sake, here it is:

For the cake:
1 orange, weighing around 150g, washed well and diced, pips removed
200g sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour, sifted
a small pinch of salt
180g butter, melted and cooled a little

For the orange syrup:
60ml orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1-2 tablespoons Cointreau

Preheat oven to 340 F or 170C. I used a loaf pan but you can use a 9″ cake pan for this recipe, line the pan with parchment paper.
But basically, you will need 1 medium sized orange, diced and make sure you take out all the pips because if not, you are going to end up with a bitter cake. Put your diced oranges into a food processor along with 200grams of sugar and process until it is silky smooth. After that you can add the eggs in one at a time until all is well mixed.

Add your flour and salt in and let the machine run until all is combined and then you pour down your melted butter until the mixture is amalgamated into a beautiful creamy batter.

Pour the delightfully fragrant cake mixture into your pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Or until the skewers comes out clean.

For the orange syrup:

While your cake is baking, put the orange juice, lemon juice and sugar into a saucepan. Let it come to a simmer for 2 minutes. If you are using cointreau, add it in now and let it continue simmering for another 1 minute. Pour off the pan and let it sit until your cake is done.

When your cake is done let it rest for 10 minutes before poking holes all round it with a skewer or a fork so that the orange syrupy goodness is absorbed into the cake.
Let it cool completely before serving. As you can see, I just couldn’t wait till it was completely cooled off hence the crumbs

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