Golden Orange Cake (Delights of Blogging)

Every now and then while surfing the blogosphere a recipe comes up that catches my fancy to such an extent that I cannot wait to try it out. I am very very impatient to try it out and feel good only after I have made it , tasted it and passed my verdict on it. In my rush to create the new dish I sometimes also oversee the fact that I do not have one or two of the ingredients mentioned in the original recipe. I convince myself that I can substitute something with something else that is available at home at that time. Well what happens is that sometimes my substitutes work and sometimes they are a real flop. But thankfully this time my efforts were rewarded beautifully.

The recipe that caught my fancy this time was Orange Cake from Meeta's What for Lunch Honey. As usual Meeta's photograph of her cake was so enticing that I could practically taste the cake in my mouth just by looking at the pic and secondly the recipe was so simple that even a clumsy baker like me could not have gone wrong . Now the only hitch was I did not have any pudding powder that was in the recipe. Ideally I should have waited for my next trip to the stores and bought some. But no!! I wanted to make that cake on that day itself. So I substituted that pudding powder with cornflour. Thankfully nothing went wrong and I baked the most delicious ,aromatic and soft fluffy cake ever. I also reduced the amount of baking powder.

Meeta's cake has a beautiful orange glaze over it . I kept mine plain as hubby loves plain cakes. But I am going to try the glaze the next time I make it. Her pics are too tempting.

Ingredients:
250g all-purpose flour ,
2.5 teaspoons baking powder,
40g cornflour,
340g sugar,
3 eggs,
80g oft butter - cut in pieces,
2 teaspoons orange zest ,
250ml orange juice

1.Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C.

2.Prepare a cake tin by greasing and lining it with baking paper. I used a square one as that's the one I had.
3.Sift flour, baking powder and the pudding powder into a large mixing bowl.

4.Add the eggs, sugar, butter, orange zest and juice to the dry ingredients and whisk into a smooth thick mixture. I did it by hand but do it with a electric cake mixer if you have one.
5.Pour the cake mixture into the cake form, even out with a rubber spatula and bake approx. 40 to 45 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick or knife is inserted in the middle of the cake and it comes out clean.
6.Take out of the oven and allow to cool a little in the mold itself. Run a knife along the sides of the cake and tip out . Peel off the baking paper.

By now I was dying to taste it and cut my self a large slice to gobble down. Hmmm!! I was in heaven.

Thanks Meeta for this fab recipe .