Orange Cake

Tomorrow (well today, now since it's past midnight) is King's Day here in the Netherlands. Apparently a tradition that is often linked to the color orange, as many are in this country. I'm not so familiar with the holidays, but since we had hallway dinner today (yesterday), we had a theme of orange food.

The moment I heard that, I thought of the jars of candied tangerine zest that I still had from winter break (same as the ones used here). Then my thoughts drifted to candied orange slices, and orange flavored cake in general. So I stopped by the supermarket after class this morning, grabbed a net of oranges, and restocked on self-rising flour.

I set off first by really cleaning one of the oranges (salt or baking soda is really effective). Then I did my best to cut it into evenly thick slices. As I am so not proficient at that, I cut the whole orange, and selected the five best slices. A simple syrup (1:1 sugar to water ratio) in a pot, and those slices, simmering over medium-low heat started the candying process.

I shaved off the zest from most of the remaining, messed up slices, and chopped those up really small. Then I squeezed the juice into a measuring cup to use in the recipe. I wanted to test pairing it with some black tea flavor, so I stuck an English breakfast teabag into some hot water, and topped my orange juice with that.

The base of this recipe is the same as the matcha mochi cake I made a few weeks ago. I replaced the water with the orange juice/tea mix, didn't put in any matcha, but instead threw in the orange zests and a handful of candied orange peels into the dry ingredients, and followed the rest of the recipe, omitting the vinegar, as I deemed the orange juice sufficient. Due to the juice's acidity, I also increased the amount of sugar.

After cooling, I dusted the top with icing sugar, and decorated with the drained candied orange slices. Unfortunately, the tea taste wasn't strong enough to come through all that orange. I'm happy the cake came out fine as I had a couple of mishaps (accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda...)

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 200 g self-rising flour
• 120 g sugar
• 75 g cooking oil
• 175 g orange juice/tea
• zest of an orange
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• icing sugar, for decorating
• candied orange slices, for decorating

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 170˚C.
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan, or line it with baking paper. Alternatively, line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
3. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and orange zests.
4. In another bowl, mix orange juice/tea, oil, and vinegar.
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool on a grill.
9. Once completely cool, dust with icing sugar, and lay candied orange peels on top.

Orange Chocolate Cake

To celebrate a double birthday (early birthdays for my brother and my dad), I made two desserts. Well technically, I was supposed to just make this cake, and my cousin B was supposed to make the apple tart. In the end, she had other stuff to do as well, so she helped me make the applesauce. Then I made the rest of the tart using store-bought puff pastry for the crust. This was also because my dad mentioned preferring it with puff pastry.

While debating what cake to make, I recalled the Black Forest cake I had made. I didn't have applesauce, but I used some my cousin made for the apple tart. I also used a sweetened cocoa powder (like those to mix in milk) as I did not have unsweetened cocoa, so reduced the sugar a lot. Also, instead of using 1/2 cup of decaf, I used about 1/4 cup decaf, and 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice. To add to the orange flavor, I zested an organic orange and threw it in with the dry ingredients.

For decoration, I sliced a smaller organic orange and simmered it in a simple sugar syrup (1 part sugar, 1 part water) until translucent, then drained on a grill. On a whim, I took some chocolate, melted it with a bit of vegetable oil to make it shinier. Then I swiped some leaf/drop shapes on a sheet of baking paper using the back of a spoon, and put it in the freezer to set.

I whipped cream with some icing sugar in it and put it between the two cake halves. Then I spread the rest over the top of the cake, and cut halves of candied orange slices before arranging them on top. With the chocolate, I settled for a flower-like shape, trying my best to keep the chocolate from melting in my hands. I chopped up a bit of a leftover candied orange for the flower's center.

Here's the cake with the candles, as well as a bit of the apple tart. I had planned to try making my own puff pastry, but didn't want to make the effort while having so much to do that day. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera at college, so had to settle with my phone's camera. We had a nice dinner with family, ate the cake, apple tart, and a fruit salad accompanied by some tea, then played games. All in all, it was a great party!