The Orange Cake Experiment

I’m no baker and my kryptonite is any sort of dough or batter. I don’t really care much for desserts I’m more of a savory person and so I don’t make much sweet stuff or bake often. My oven is used for baking food or vegetables but never for a cake or cookies. While spending endless hours looking up recipes ( it’s one of my fav past times ) I chanced upon one for what they call a Chiffon cake. I think it’s just a really light airy and fluffy version of a sponge cake. It was orange in flavour which is my favourite kind of sponge cake and I decided to give this a go. My cake didn’t turn out quite as fluffy but it was delicious and I think it re affirmed my wavering faith in my baking skills. If you’re looking for a simple un- intimidating recipe then this should help. Happy Baking folks !

Ingredients –

225 grams of flour

200 grams of sugar

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Juice of 1 orange  ( freshly squeezed is better )

120 ml olive oil

3 egg whites and 3  egg yolks

Butter or oil to grease the pan

Zest of one or two oranges

Method –

In a bowl whisk the egg yolks and add the salt, 100 grams of sugar ( not all the sugar), the orange juice and the oil.

In another bowl sift the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix together.

In a separate bowl mix the egg white and the rest of the sugar with an electric beater till they become stiff white peaks. Gently fold it into your batter. To this mixture add the orange zest and mix it all well.

Empty the batter into a greased baking tin and bake in a pre heated oven at 170 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Prick a toothpick or a thin knife into the cake, if it comes out smooth it means the cake is ready. Depending on your oven and temperature the time can vary so keep checking. Once it’s done let it cool and plate it up. You can eat this as is or with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

 

Note – I didn’t have an electric beater so the step with the egg whites and sugar didn’t work out for me. I just mixed them as well as I could before adding it to my cake batter. I think if I had used the electric beater it would have given the cake more volume and probably would have risen more.

The recipe also asks for orange extract and orange food colouring but I skipped both and stuck to natural orange juice and the zest. The real flavour is in the zest so the more you add the better.

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