If
you are in any way experienced in baking, you know that scattering sieved icing
sugar is a lovely way to finish off your masterpiece. However, it also hides a
multitude of sins – especially slightly burnt bits and disguises the middle of
the cake where Dear Husband (in his wisdom) decided to cover it with a tea
cloth when I was putting Baby Daughter to bed. He meant
well though – he knows I am like a woman possessed if blue bottles or any kind
of fly gets into the kitchen; I won’t rest until the little blighter has met
his fate. Of course, the good weather attracts all those icky things and it was another gorgeous day in Donegal and,
believe it or not, temperatures reached 26°C. It’s a good job that I have that
recorded in this blog because those kinds of days will be few and far between.
With
the weather being so good, I didn’t really feel like making a major dinner so I
made something light for Dear Husband and got on with making a dessert as I had
been meaning to make Orange torte for
a while. Mainly because I was intrigued as to how a cake that contained steamed
whole oranges (peel included) would turn out.
I
got to use my steamer saucepan from my new set for the first time. I am so glad
that Dear Husband had the sense to buy that set for me. It really is getting
good use. I washed and halved two oranges before placing them in a steamer with
the lid on for 30 minutes. I let them cool slightly and then got on with the
cake mix. Another strange thing about this cake is that it didn’t require
flour; instead, ground almonds were used. So, into the Magimix went ground
almonds, 6 eggs, baking powder and caster sugar. Plus, I had to add the whole
oranges into the mixture too! All I had to do was remove the pips. I whizzed
everything until it was a smooth consistency and then poured it into a
spring-form/loose-bottomed cake tin. Into the oven the cake went for 40
minutes. Actually, make that 42 minutes as that’s when I remembered to take it
out! I cooled it for 10 minutes before taking it out of the tin and, to serve, I
dusted it with icing sugar and added a few scoops of ice-cream.
I
was surprised at how soft the oranges were after steaming them. Prior to that, I
was convinced they’d probably break the food processor which would not have
been good considering that it belongs to Dear Sister No.2. And I never borrow anything from anyone so I thought
that on this one occasion, it would be Murphy’s Law that I would end up
breaking it. Thankfully though, it was well fit for my baking.
Overall, a
fairly simple recipe to make; the only slight criticism I’d make was having to
steam the oranges for half an hour before starting into the cake mixture but
that’s just the impatient side of me. The cake reminded me of lemon drizzle
cake and was lovely and moist. In terms
of marks, Dear Husband and I both scored it 8 marks out of 10 and, therefore,
it has made The List. What’s even better is that no matter who calls to my
house this weekend, I will have lovely slices of homemade cake to give them.
All I need to do though is to stop Dear Husband from sneaking out the kitchen
for yet another slice…
No comments:
Post a Comment