Orange Cake - Take #2

Since Christmas, my daughter has been bugging me (non-stop) to bake a cake for her and that too, with some sort of frosting to go with it. So, I decided to give "eggless sponge cake" a.k.a "orange cake" another try. Last time when I baked this cake, it turned out to be very dry (though it tasted very good). I kind of knew what the problem was and so, I decided to try this again from my "to-retry" list.

I had my lesson from the previous baking experience - I baked it at a very low temp last time (180 deg) - it took forever to bake and the cake came out very dry. This time, I baked it at 350 degrees and "voila!", cake turned out to be perfect. Cake was very dense, moist, soft & tasty ... I am glad I decided to try it again. It definitely looked and tasted like a cake this time :-) and my daughter loved it very much. What more a mom wants?!!

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 & 1/4 cup
Condensed milk - 1 cup minus 2 tblsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 3 tblsp (I used baker's sugar)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Orange extract - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Grease the baking pan (with some butter) and keep it aside.

Whisk butter, condensed milk, orange juice, vanilla extract, powdered sugar (I did it just with my hand whisk) until all the ingredients comes together.

Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda together for a couple of times to mix them well & also to incorporate air which helps in getting a better cake.

Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Gently mix with a hand whisk without any lumps. Add orange extract to the batter and give it another mix.

Pour the batter into greased baking pan and bake the cake at 350 degrees for about 30 - 35 mins. Insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake to check if its baked (toothpick should come out clean) and let it cool for few mins and then, no stopping - just enjoy!

You can also choose to decorate it with some frosting on the top. I made a chocolate frosting and it tasted heaven with orange cake (never knew orange & chocolate could sing such a beautiful duet together :-)).

Tips

• Don’t leave the batter in the mixing bowl because some of the beaten-in air used for leavening will be lost.
• Do not open the oven door until the cake rises. Outside temperature interferes with the oven temperature and hinders the baking process.