Orange Buttermilk Pound Cake

  Hi!

I was castigating myself that I have been neglecting my blog so much. I am not a techno savvy person so whatever I have done to my blog has been my learning or rather e-learning. I know my blog needs a good face lift, but alas! With my poor knowledge for all the techno things I am unable to do so. So my techno friends out there I am all ears and ready to learn if you are ready to share some knowledge with me.

I am so happy typing this post, that I am breaking away from the monotony of curries and savories. The last cake that I posted was Zucchini  and Chocolate cake with Chocolate Ganache and it seems ages that I baked it. It’s been  sometime that I was planning to bake. Every time I would see a cake post, I would remind myself that I need to bake. The heat was taking a toll on my body and the oven seemed most unexciting. We are facing a few hours of load shedding everyday. Gladly we do have a full back up but still who would take chances with the baking???? Weirdo that I am, I did take the challenge of baking a cake in this 45C heat, with the current going and coming every tenth minute I really had to monitor the time and temperature very carefully and as promised by the author of the recipe the cake turned out very well and I was congratulating myself to sail successfully amidst all the load shedding.

I have been reading Baking Bites very regularly and her cakes and baked products are truly an inspiration. I always wanted to try her cake recipe and I am so glad that I tried it today. She has made a lemon buttermilk pound cake, I have made minute changes to her recipe based on the ingredients I had in my pantry. I wanted to make the lemon cake but realised I did not have enough lime to get the zest, so I removed as much zest that I could get and substituted the remaining with orange..at the last minute I realised I was short of the Vanilla so balanced it with the orange essence. The orange glaze instead of the lemon zest gave that extra tinge of orange!

To my surprise these miniscule changes too added amazing flavor to the cake. The cake as you can see in the picture is amazingly soft. I had finished baking the cake before the younger one came from school. I was standing in my kitchen when I saw him sniffing while entering the building and the minute he stepped in he said you have baked a cake right, I could smell it outside..which cake have you baked? Can I have a piece now? The typical mother I am, asked him to wash and change and then wait till I pour the glaze over the cake..the impatient child he is, asked me how long will it take. The typical Mom I am answered, you get it only after finishing lunch. He can find many excuses to skip his lunch so I found a good reason to make him eat. I surely served him a glazed piece of cake post lunch, he ate a bite and grinned…I want one more after this, it’s too good. That smile on his face and I was overwhelmed, all the hard work in that heat seemed all the worth.

Ingredients for Orange Cake

3 cups APF

3 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 cups sugar

a pinch of salt

1-1/4 cups milk + 1-1/4 tbsp lime juice/ butter milk

1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla essence (I used 1-1/4 vanilla + 3/4 orange essence)

1/2 cup oil

2 tbsp orange zest (I used 1 tbsp lime+1 tbsp orange)

For orange glaze

1-1/2 cups Icing sugar

3 tbsp Orange juice

1 tbsp Orange zest

2 tbsp butter(melted and cooled)

Mix all the ingredients and then pour it over the cooled cake.

Method

Preheat the oven at 350F/ 175C.

Mix together the butter milk, vanilla and oil.

Sift together the APF, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar and then add the zests, mix.

Add an egg at a time and beat.

Adding the dry ingredients first alternately add the APF mix and buttermilk mix in 2-3 times.

Pour it in a greased 10” tube pan ( I used Dr. Oetker’s) and bake for 50-55 mins till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Let it stand in the oven for 5 minutes and then remove it on a cooling rack.

Once the cake is cool, transfer it on a plate and then pour the glaze. Cut into pieces and serve.