Well I'm back... did you miss me? Yes yes, I'm back to blog about another recipe that I have tried out and let me tell you something, this ones a goody! But, let's face it, when is baking not good? For one, when you are really excited about baking something and you've envisioned how it will look when it is all done, decorated and ready to eat. People are smiling and it is tasting so good. Then when reality hits, you've tried it and for some reason it hasn't worked. Cue the tears. This is worse than stubbing your toe on the edge of a table leg. This hurts. All your optimistic ideas of it are crushed in the harsh reality and realisation that not everything works out the first time around. Baking is a challenge and sometimes you have to work at it.
So, I haven't blogged in a while and you know something, I missed it! Talking to all of you lovely, anonymous people. I've been rather the busy bee, which meant that I wasn't baking as much as I would have liked to. But guess what, I finally found some time to bake and what a way to start the weekend. I made a citrus cake, except that calling it simply a citrus cake does it no justice. This was a fresh orange citrus cake. All moist, fresh and zingy. It was light, crumbly and fluffy. Everything a cake should be and more. I iced this cake with an orange zest buttercream icing.
I've always felt that when it comes to icing, especially buttercream there are two things that I never like about it. 1) It's too sweet. 2) There is too much of it. Whenever I order a dessert, I always find that there is way too much icing and not only that, but it is way too sweet. There is something sickly about it. If I wanted to eat that much icing in one sitting, I'd whip some up at home and sprinkle some cake crumbs on top of it and eat it like that. This was a Buttercream cake with cake crumbs for the icing. It was masquerading as a cupcake, but in reality was something very different.
Anyway, the reason I wanted to make this cake was because I have an order in a few weeks for it and when I get an order for something that I either haven't made before or haven't made in a while, I like to test it out and make it. This allows me to see how much ingredients I need, how long it takes and what it looks and taste like. I'm a planner in life, I like to know what is coming and how something will turn out.
This is a great cake and I'm rather pleased with it. I like the look of it, the taste of it and the smell. There is a very refreshing and pleasant aroma off of this cake, all citrus like and vibrant.
I used a Delia Smith recipe, but influenced it with my own ideas to make it into an orange cake with orange buttercream icing. The thing I like most about my buttercream is that is isn't too buttery, or sweet. I taste it after each addition of the icing sugar (with a different spoon each time (: ) to check the sweetness. The minute that buttery after taste (we all know it. We imagine that it'll taste good, but it is no lie that it doesn't really taste good... although in saying that, I used to know someone who used to love eating butter, just butter and only butter.) goes away, I stop adding the sugar. This makes the buttercream what I think is the perfect balance between sweet and buttery. It's not so sweet that it is sickly, but not too buttery that you think it should be spread on toast and not on a cake.
Citrus cakes to me are always good cakes, or eggs should I say ;). Whenever I like someone or think they are nice, I refer to them 'as a good egg'. This of course, as always, came from my sister's lips first. And like every little sibling, I copied her and now have adopted that phase. It's quite fitting don't you think? Since there are eggs in the cake and I'm saying it is a good egg. Nope, just me? Naturally.
There was something quite satisfying about this cake, what with all that orange juice and zest. To zest is a very therapeutic act. I'll just leave that out there. Plus it acts like a natural perfume in the house. Filling the entire space with this subtle, but delightful scent. All fresh and zingy. The zest is where the flavour is at. It goes with so much, not just cakes! Zest is served in cocktails; the Cosmopolitan, Gin and Tonic, and Martinis. It's used in salads, well at least I use it in salad. I make this pear, grape, apple, iceberg lettuce and lemon zest salad. You heard it here first. The zest lifts the whole thing. Proof you say. Well my mother, a lady who never eats her vegetables, ate the whole thing and couldn't stop saying how yum it was. Case and point.
Back to the cake. This cake only gets better with time. Somehow, I presume it is something to do with all that zest and juice, it becomes more moist and delicious. Even better, this means I can indulge for many days instead for just one day!
The ingredients for this cake are; and this cake makes enough for 20 people. Bake in 2, rectangular, 20cm cake tins. Make sure they are non-stick and if not, butter them generously and line all around with non stick baking paper.
Cake:
- 440g Self Raising Flour
- 440g Caster Sugar
- 440g Butter
- 8 Eggs
- 2 Large Oranges, zest and juice
Buttercream:
- 400g unsalted Butter
- 900g Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Water
- 1 Orange, zest and juice
To make the cake, you want to preheat the oven to 170 C in a fan oven and allow it to get all warm and toasty. When in actual fact, this would be way warmer than the warm and toasty stage. This would be more like the scolding and burn your toasty stage.
Whilst this is mixing, crack your eggs into a separate bowl. It would be a little grim, had you just spent all this time making this cake and then to find out when eating there were little fragments of egg shell in it. Not pleasant. Go with the safe option, crack in a separate bowl then add.
Once all the eggs are cracked, dump them into the bowl along with the butter and sugar and wow, you've got a mess. Seriously, it looks mighty depressing at this stage. The little bits of butter start to float to the top until the flour is added, binding it all together to form this silky, wonderful batter.
I know you are supposed, or supposedly supposed to talk the batter up through every stage and say how wonderful it all looks. I'm going to be honest, give you the true, cold facts about cake making. It ain't all pretty. What matters is that it turns out pretty and damn delicious!
Add in the flour, orange zest and juice and there you go, all the ingredients are added and ready to be mixed in. Give this a good mix and allow all the ingredients to fully incorporate.
Once this is done, take a ladle and evenly portion out the batter between these two cake tins. This took me around 5 ladles per cake tin. So it was a 10 ladle batter in total.
Bake these until golden brown, baked through and they are smelling delicious! This took around 20 minutes, depending on your oven and all that. But 20 minutes is pretty much it.
Whilst this is baking, make the buttercream. This means, that if you are like me and hate mess, it gets all the dishes out of the way as fast as. I hate it when I've just cleaned up the kitchen after the cake making stage; everything is all clean and gleaming and then the icing sugar devil comes and lines the entire kitchen with the sweet, dusty hew. Try I might to stop this by using a tea towel to block most of it, some still escapes and so the battle continues. Every surface is touched and now must be scrubbed and dried and wiped clean. I need a room specifically for making buttercream. It seems all sweet and friendly, but really it is a true pain and a half. Then again the end result is pretty nice. See how changeable I can be?
Chuck the butter into a bowl and whisk until it is smooth and light in colour.
Add in all the icing sugar, orange zest and juice at once. Hold a tea towel over the bowl and with the mixer on low and slow, allow this to mix and gradually combine to form this wonderful mixture that we know and love.
Once the cakes are baked, take them out and tip them, top first onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, place onto a steady surface and begin to ice the cake.
If your cake has risen a little too enthusiastically in the middle, level it off. Do this by using a serated knife that is large enough to 'cut' down (get it, cut? Come on, it's so punny!) on the need to keep turning the cake and sawing away at it. One this is done, be generous and give the cake a generous filling, no one likes a cake that is stingy on the icing.
I did this by tipping a load of icing onto the middle of the cake and then using a small palette knife and a mug of boiling water, smooth the icing out towards the edges and level it off. After each use, tip the palette knife, blade first (did that need explanation?) into the water. This will heat it up and make it easier to spread the buttercream around the cake.
Once there is sufficient icing in the middle of the cake, place the other cake, forming the top layer on the icing and press down slightly. This will both secure the cake to the other half and will slightly flatten the icing more, making it even neater.
Ice the top of the cake in the same way and then the sides. I do this by putting extra icing on the bottom of my knife and using a rocking motion, I spread it onto the sides. I use a little extra icing if needed to fill in any of the gaps in the middle that mightn't have been filled.
Once all the sides and entire cake is iced, use a bread cutter or icing smoother to smooth and level off the icing, giving it an even and attractive finish. It'll have little flecks of orange zest in it, which I think brightens it up and is something different. :)
Then if you want, decorate it more by using some of the excess icing. Fill a piping bag, fitted with a star tipped nozzle with some of the leftover buttercream. Pipe little stars around the edge of the cake to give it a border. This to me, makes it look a lot prettier and more appealing.
You could of course then write something in the middle or slice an orange and place the segments in the middle to give it something a little different?
Personally, I think it looks great as it is!
That is the cake done! Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon with another bake.
Ciara
