Tag: tea cake

Pumpkin and Powdered Orange Peel Cake

Desserts

When my walking mate Kala gave me this perfectly spiced cake, I instantly liked the taste and the moist texture. She was gracious enough to give the recipe to me. Moist and delicate with a hint of pumpkin, spices and orange flavour, it tastes delicious even without the cream cheese frosting. You can add any nuts like pistachois or walnuts into the batter. I have not added any nuts in the cake except for decorating it on top.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour/Maida – 2 cups

Granulated Sugar – 1 1/2 cups

Chopped Pistachois – 2 tbsp (optional)

Eggs ( room temperature) – 3

Oil -1 cup (vegetable or corn oil)

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Nutmug powder – less than 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon powder – 2 tsp

Dried Ginger powder – 1/2 tsp

Dried Orange Peel Powder – 1/4 cup

Salt – a pinch

Baking powder – 2 tsp

Soda bi-carbonate – 1 tsp

Pumpkin Puree – 1 3/4 cup

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 170 C /350 F and grease a circular 9 x 13 non stick baking pan with a brush. Dust some flour into the pan so that the cake comes off easily after baking. (Optionally, you may line the pan with parchment paper).

Dice roughly about 1/4 of a medium pumpkin and steam it in a steamer. Grind it in a mixie to a puree. Measure 1 3/4 cups and keep it aside. (Or you may use a store bought pumpkin puree can).

First, mix the dry ingredients. In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, dried ginger powder together in a large bowl. Whisk it and set aside.

Next, mix the wet ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the oil, eggs and granulated sugar. Add the pumpkin puree, dried orange peel powder and vanilla essence together until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be slightly thick. In case the batter is too thick, you may add 2 tbsps of milk.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake it for 35-40 minutes. The baking time may vary slightly in different ovens. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and set the pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. You can dust the cake with powdered sugar and chopped pistachois. I prefer this to the cream cheese frosting.

Orange Cake

Baking, Desserts

My sweet tooth began at an early age. I remember growing up, eating this cake which mom made so often during my school days. She always used to make it with butter but here, I have substituted it with oil for obvious health reasons. Nevertheless, this cake bursts with citrus flavours and tastes just delicious.

Yields 2 loaves

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 2 1/2 cups

Eggs – 4 large

Baking powder – 2 1/2 tsp

Sunflower or Canola oil – 1 cup

Freshly squeezed orange juice – 1 1/4 cups

Granulated sugar – 1 1/2 cups

Orange zest of 3 oranges

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degree F or 180 degree C. Grease two loaf pans (8 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inch pans).

In a mixing bowl, whisk flour and baking powder and keep aside.

In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar on high speed using a hand held electric mixer for 3 -4 minutes until they become fluffy. Then, reduce the speed to low and keep adding oil slowly until well combined. Now add the orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract and keep whisking until it is well combined.

Next, add the flour slowly keeping the speed of the beater on low or use a spatula to mix it well. Do not overmix it as the cake may fall flat while baking.

Then, pour the batter into the two pans for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely.

Dust it with powdered sugar and serve.

Note: I always used to grate the oranges to take the zest but a tip from my friend Cini was a great time saver. She asked me to peel the orange skins using a peeler and chop it fine with a knife or grind it once in the mixer to a coarse texture. Try and let me know if this works for you too.