The White Ramekins

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Orange Chiffon Cake

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Orange Chiffon Cake

Sunny days are here with cool breeze in the air. Though we know, it will last for a couple of weeks, before hot and unbearable scorching days will hit us hard. And we all will see the characteristic shift in the seasonal produce. We don’t get to see the strawberries now. I have frozen a big bag for the days to come.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Oranges will probably stay for a couple of weeks more. I had bought an angel cake pan last year during Christmas, which I hadn’t used till now. Orange chiffon cake was already on my mind since the day I bought this pan. But I was longing for lighter sunny days to match up to the airy and summery feel of this cake.

Orange Chiffon Cake

And so recipes like coffee cakes with cinnamon and spices ruled the roost. I baked more with wholesome flours like cornmeal, semolina and whole wheat which were substantial for the colder days. But now the weather has completely changed and I don’t yearn for such stuff anymore. This airy and light cake complements the season pretty well.

Orange Chiffon Cake

With sun rising early in the morning now, I am back in the action for baking during early morning hours.  With no cream of tartar in the stock, I went on hunting for this essential ingredient for a nice chiffon cake on Friday evening after work. Yeah you read it right, we have to literally hunt for such baking ingredients here in India sometimes. But I was pretty confident to have found it in my most reliable grocery shop for baking ingredients. And when I reached there, Bang!!!

Orange Chiffon Cake

They were out of stock on it. Sad me reached home thinking how would I be getting that perfectly shaped chiffon cake. I didn’t want that sagging center of a badly baked cake and that too when I was baking it for the first time. So I started looking for substitute.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Right when I was in need of it, my dear blogger friend Mukta suggested that I could use an equal amount of lemon juice as well. She’s a great baker and I knew that I could trust her without any doubt. And voila! it worked like a magic. The orange rind made it so fragrant and summery. The lovely icing drizzled on the cake was oh so perfect! We all enjoyed it to the last bit. Especially my two year nephew liked it more than anything else. I really couldn’t have asked for more!

Orange Chiffon Cake

Recipe adapted from Joy Of Baking

Ingredients

Cake

6 large eggs plus one egg white
225 gm sifted cake flour
300 gm superfine sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp grated orange zest
120 ml vegetable oil
180 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice

Icing

50 gm unsalted butter
200 gm icing sugar
50 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp grated orange zest

Directions

  1. For cake, preheat the oven at 170 degree C.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, 250 gm sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Make a well in the center and add the egg yolks, oil, orange juice and vanilla extract. Mix well to make a smooth batter.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the lemon juice and start beating until soft peaks form.
  4. Gradually beat in the remaining 50 gm of sugar until stiff peaks form and egg whites look glossy.
  5. Gently fold in the egg whites into the cake batter, taking care not to deflate the batter.
  6. Pour the batter into the tube pan. Tap the pan on the work surface gently 2-3 times, to remove the air bubbles if any.
  7. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Immediately upon taking out of the oven, invert the cake pan on to flat surface of an inverted bowl, so that it is suspended into the air. Let it cool completely. When cooled completely, loosen the sides of the cake from the pan, using a sharp knife or long spatula. Invert the cake on to the serving platter.
  8. For the icing, melt the butter and mix in all the remaining ingredients to make a pouring consistency.
  9. Spoon the icing over the cooled cake and let it drizzle through the edges.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

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Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

I always keep on finding ways to replace the plain refined flour with the alternate flours, as maximum as possible. Most of the time, wholewheat flour finds it’s way into the coffee cakes or cookies I bake at home.  Recently, I baked a cornmeal cake, which came out kinda surprise to me.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

A hearty golden hued cake with aromatic sweet hints of vanilla and tart strawberry filling. And next in the row happened to be this Semolina cake. I was thrilled to see the recipe of semolina cakes soaked into orange syrup in a Turkish food series on TV. I knew I had to bake those moist yet light sweet treats filled of aromatic flavors.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

But that was very long ago, and I hadn’t kept note of the recipe either. But it always stayed at the back of my mind. It is spring for us and Oranges have been here for quite sometime now. They’d be soon gone, so there’s another rush to make something out of them.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

I had made strawberry and orange sorbet last week, combining two beautiful and abundant fruits of winter here. But sadly, I couldn’t capture the pics well. I plan to do that sometime again and would come back with the recipe soon.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

The sorbet couldn’t sated the desire for more orange and it reminded me of those lovely orange syrup cakes. I just had to bake that cake and it was the time. I tried to recollect the ingredients and I could get this lovely orange yogurt semolina cake, closest possible to the one in my memories.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

I baked the cake a day in advance, soaked it with orange syrup and then slathered it with some 80 % dark chocolate ganache the next day, before serving. Oranges and Dark chocolate, another favorite pairing of mine, in fact a classic one.

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

The cake alone has a beautiful identity and you can relish it as is with your tea or coffee. Dark chocolate is a bonus treat and who doesn’t like a perk!

Orange Yogurt Semolina Cake

Ingredients

For Cake

1/3 cup ground blanched almonds
1 cup plain flour
1 cup semolina
100 gm butter, at room temperature
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup hung yogurt
3 eggs, separated
2 tsp grated orange rind
2 tsp baking powder

For Syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice

For Chocolate Ganache

100 gm dark chocolate
1/2 cup low fat cream

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Grease and line a 8 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and keep aside.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric beater in a bowl, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the yogurt, egg yolks and orange zest, until combined well.
  3. Sift in the flour, semolina, ground almonds and baking powder and stir to combine.
  4. In another clean bowl, using clean electric beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
  5. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter using a large spatula, until just combined.
  6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for around 40 minutes, or until golden and skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
  7. While the cake is baking, prepare orange syrup by simmering orange juice and sugar in a saucepan for 5 minutes, without stirring.
  8. Once the cake is baked, pour the syrup over the hot cake. Set aside to cool completely.
  9. To make the chocolate ganache, chop the chocolate into small chunks. Heat the cream in a saucepan, until it starts to boil. Add the chopped chocolate into the hot cream and let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir gently to combine the chocolate and cream together.
  10. Pour over the cooled cake and let drizzle down the edges, without covering the sides of cake uniformly. Garnish the top with thin orange slices.