Eggless Orange Cake

Oranges are in season and what better way to celebrate it than by making this delicious and super moist n soft eggless orange cake. Oh my God! I have been missing all these flavourful cakes. Before joining the baking group on Facebook, which rightly gets the credit of transforming my life, I knew only of a chocolate cake and a vanilla cake. I was pretty contended baking 1-2 cakes in a year and 1-2 pizzas or 3-4 times the usual 2-3 flavoured cookie. I never knew or thought that I shall be making so many cakes

and cookies in my kitchen.

At times I really feel good that I have so many cookie and cake recipes in my blog. I can actually see my growth as a baker. I have realised that the more you practice, the more perfect you get. It’s not just the recipes, understanding the consistency of batter, balancing the flavours and proportion of ingredients used is more important in any bake. Moreover, you need to be ready to experiment and take chances. Don’t just stick to one recipe, keep trying and do not be scared of failures.

Feel free to add chopped cranberries in the batter. I assure you that orange and cranberry is an ultimate combination. But since Neha wanted a plain orange cake, I had to curb my temptation to add cranberriesbin the cake batter. The glaze is optional. As always, my cakes are not over sweet. You can increase the amount of sugar by a spoon or so. I have used fresh orange juice made from those smooth skinned oranges. Used a fine grater to grate the zest. Please ensure that you do not grate the white part of the skin, as it will be quite bitter. Only grate the orange part of skin. The orange extract is optional, but please do not skip the zest as it gives the strong orange flavour to the cake. Fresh cream can be replaced with thick curd and then the vinegar can be omitted. Who says eggless cakes aren’t soft? I don’t know whether my photos do proper justice to the cake texture, but I can assure you that this cake not only has a perfect texture, but is super delicious too.

I have used a 240 ml cup.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 200 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Baking powder 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Sugar 125 gm
• Orange zest 2 tsp
• Orange juice 120 ml (1/2 cup)
• Oil 60 ml (1/4 cup)
• Fresh cream 1/4 cup
• Milk 1-2 tbsp
• Orange extract 1 tsp
• Vinegar 1 tsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven at around 150-160 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Grease an eight inch round cake tin with butter and dust it with flour.

• Sieve flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda 2-3 times.

• Whisk the sugar, oil, orange juice and fresh cream till the sugar is dissolved.
• Now add the zest and orange extract and mix well.

• Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry mixture and fold gently.
• Add 1-2 tablespoon of milk of you feel that the batter is too thick.

• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and level it.

• Tap the tin on the counter to remove air bubbles if any.
• Bake the cake for around 30-35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Remove the tin from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
• 
• Now transfer the cake onto a cooling rack and cool it completely.
• Cut and serve with a cup of tea or cake. If desired, poke the top of the cake with a toothpick and drizzle the glaze on top.

• Tried this cake again for Neha’s birthday and it turned out awesome. Doubled the recipe and made it in a 13 by 9 inches rectangular tin.

Notes:

• An important tip: After cooling the cake, if you feel that the top of your cake looks a bit moist or oily, place the cake on a tray and leave it in the warm oven for an hour or so. Or you can lightly cover it with a parchment paper on top and leave it in the oven overnight. It becomes perfect.
• To make a simple orange glaze, cook 2 tablespoon of sugar with 2 tablespoon of fresh orange juice and a pinch of fresh orange zest. Thicken with a spoon of cornflour. Drizzle when it’s cooled.

• Or you may cook sugar and orange juice with some zest and reduce it a bit. Cool and whisk in a tablespoon of thick fresh cream. Pour it over the cake and enjoy.

• I have used the zest of 2 big oranges in the cake.
• I have got this new zester from amazon.com and it works beautifully. Here is the link to it. https://www.amazon.com/Citrus-Zester-Cheese-Grater-AdeptChef/dp/B01IJHU7YO/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=adept+chef+zester&qid=1566102520&s=gateway&sr=8-2