Shortbreads

Whew, it's been a long time since I last blogged about baking. I've been meaning to, but a combination of assignments/thesis writing and laziness have kept me away......

These shortbreads date from last fall, the first being cranberry shortbreads baked in October 2016. I made the dough into a long log that I attempted to keep fairly rectangular in cross-section, then sliced the dough into individual cookies after chilling. This does avoid the monotony that can come from rolling out the dough and cutting it into shapes. The down side is the shapes are more limited, as the dough is really soft prior to chilling.

It's been so long I can't quite remember why I baked to begin with, but I think it may have been to give to my dad's colleagues at the hospital...

Next are some peanut butter chip shortbreads, and some candied orange ones.

These were baked in November, for a get-together with my cousin L and a friend S. Last semester, we got together a lot to eat a quick dinner then spend the time working on our respective theses. I had felt like baking I recall, so these came to be.

The recipe for all the shortbreads is the same as these ones that I have made several times already. I just swapped out the filling.

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...)

---

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.

Lemon Sponge Cake with Cranberry Topping

I rarely start a post with a picture of the slice, but this time, the inside was what was important! For a dinner among friends, I tackled a recipe I found on Indian Kitchen, for an eggless lemon sponge cake. When the cake came out of the oven, I was surprised at how nicely spongy it was.

The yellowish color of the crumb comes simply from the lemon. When we ate it, however, we deemed the cake a little on the dry side. Maybe infusing it with some juice after baking, or baking it for a shorter time would have remedied that.

The topping is a sauce I made with rehydrated dried cranberries and candied orange peels that I had made a few weeks ago. I just stuck a couple handfuls of chopped dried cranberries and some candied orange peels in a pot with some water, and simmered it all until all the dried bits were rehydrated. Then I added a bit of a slurry of cornstarch to thicken it up. After cooling, I topped the cake with the mix.

---

RECIPE adapted from Indian Kitchen

  Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/3 cup yogurt
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• zest 1 lemon
• 3 tbs lemon juice
• 1/4 cup vegetable juice

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180˚C.
2. In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk yogurt and powdered sugar.
4. Add lemon juice and zest, and oil. Mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour mix, and mix until combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan and bake 20-30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for about 2 mins.
8. Unmold and cool on a cooling rack.
9. Top and enjoy.

Orange Zest Cupcakes

For a quick brunch between friends, I decided to make some cupcakes (mostly because I've been wanting to bake something, but didn't have the opportunity to). I still had some candied orange peels from the last candied orange cupcakes, so I opted for an orange-y cupcake. Good thing I still have some oranges sitting in the fruits basket!

I baked a half batch of basic vegan cake (this time, it yielded 6 cupcakes), in which I added about 2 tbs of candied orange zests, and grated in the zest of an additional orange.

I made a batch of frosting with some orange blossom aroma, and then decorated with an orange supreme and some more candied peels.

---

BASIC VEGAN CAKE RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tbs vanilla extract
• 1 tbs white or apple cider vinegar

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180°C. Grease and flour a cake pan. Alternatively, use cupcake liners.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. In another bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.
5. Mix well, ensuring there are no dry pockets of flour.
6. Pour into pan.
7. Bake for 30 mins (for a whole cake) or 20 mins (for normal-sized cupcakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let it cool and ice/top it however you want.

FROSTING RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 5 tbs flour
• 1 cup soymilk
• 1 cup butter, softened
• granulated sugar, to taste
• 1-2 tsp of flavor

  Procedure

1. In a saucepan, whisk together flour and soymilk. Heat until thickened to a batter-like consistency.
2. Add in the flavor.
3. Cool to room temperature. 
4. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy, and no graininess from the sugar remains
5. Add the flour/soymilk mix, and beat until it reaches a frosting consistency.

Candied Orange Cupcakes

I had some whipped cream left from Apple Cinnamon Cake, so I wanted to quickly make some cupcakes to top it with. Unfortunately, the whipped cream had gone bad already...

Instead, I decided to candy some orange peels, and add them to the batter. I also used the leftover ones as topping.

The recipe used is the basic vegan cake recipe I always use, except I ran out of soy milk, so I used cow's milk (Recipe in the linked cake above). Half a batch made 7 cupcakes. I added the candied peels of about 1 orange.