ORANGE CAKE – Easy Recipes

A simple orange cake which is the perfect slice with an everyday cup of tea. This cake is easy to make, fragrant, light and fluffy and stores well for a good 3 to 4 days in a stand with a dome or in an airtight container.

PREPARATION TIME

PREP TIME 15

COOK TIME 30

TOTAL TIME 45

INGREDIENTS

200 grams cake flour

2 1/2 tsps. baking powder

4 eggs

200 grams castor sugar 1 cup

220 grams unsalted soft butter

1 Tbsp. orange zest

3/4 cup crème fraiche or thick whipped cream

1/4 cup jam citrus, orange, marmalade or your preferred

5 Tbsps orange juice

icing sugar for decoration

Cook ModePREVENT YOUR SCREEN FROM GOING DARK

INSTRUCTIONS

Adjust the oven rack to the lower middle and preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line the bottom of the tin with baking paper and then spray with cooking spray, spraying the sides of the tin as well. Set aside. It’s not necessary to line the sides of the tin.

Dry Ingredients

To a bowl add the flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Wet ingredients

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or another bowl if using an electric hand mixer) add the butter and sugar. Beat on low speed till combined. Beat for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest and beat once more.

Gradually add the dry ingredients while the mixer is running, a spoonful at a time and while adding flour, add an egg at a time until the flour and eggs are all used up. Just keep alternating flour, egg, flour egg until all the eggs and flour is used up.

Add the orange juice, give one final beat and pour the batter into the tins.

Divide the cake batter between the two lined and greased tins and bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until the tops of the cakes are golden. Check with a toothpick for doneness.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before removing them from the tins (about 10 minutes)

Once properly cooled place the cakes on a wire rack to further cool, top side down.

Turn the one cake top side down onto a plate and spread the jam over. Add the mascarpone or crème fraiche cheese over the jam.Put the other cake, flat side down and sprinkle castor sugar for a light dusting.

NOTES

Flour weight by scale and not by cup. You may hear that 200 grams of flour is equivalent to 1 1/4 cups, or 1 1/2 cups that’s because it depends on how fine the flour is, how compact, what flour it is etc. so for an accurate measurement use a scale. Yes you can also use the ‘spoon and leveled’ option. (scoop with a spoon into the measuring cup and level with the back of a knife).

Cooling the cake when the cakes come out the oven, let them cool about 10 minutes before trying to remove them from the tins.

Place the cakes top side down on a cooling rack. Note that the top of the cake will take the shapes of the rack which I think adds a dimension of beauty to the cake however, if you don’t like it simply use paper to cover the rack so it’s not ‘marked’

Creaming and jam add a generous amount of jam onto the cake and spread it out from the middle to the outsides. Add the cream over and do the same, some of the jam and cream will fall to the sides that’s fine but take note of the following point.

Fridge wait until the cake is properly cooled before adding the cream otherwise it starts melting and falling down the sides. The longer you wait the colder the cake will be. There are times we couldn’t wait longer than 30 minutes so we would add the cream, cut a slice and serve while semi warm with spilling jam and cream and then place it in the fridge to settle. Thereafter it keeps fresh in a stand with a dome or an airtight container for 3 to 4 days!

NUTRITION

Calories: 476kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 7gFat: 28gSaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 141mgSodium: 223mgFiber: 1gSugar: 30g