Orange Marmalade Cake

Orange Marmalade Cake

Winter , the season of baking . Winter , the season of orange !!!! What can be better in a chilly winter evening , sipping a hot cup of coffee with bites of heavenly orange marmalade cake!!!! Though I know two or three very nice orange marmalade cake recipes , but sometimes the worm in my head drive me crazy to experiment with new and old ingredients again and again . This is another experimented outcome being it exclusively my own recipe . The condensed milk , evaporated milk along with orange juice ,made it richer , softer and incredibly moist . A must try !!!!

Ingredients:

2 eggs ( room temperature)
1 and 1/4 th cup of all purpose flour
2 tbl spoon cornstarch/ cornflour
1/4 th tea spoon baking soda ( little more than 1/4 th tea spoon)
1/2 tea spoon baking powder
1/4 th cup vegetable shortening + margarine
1/4 th cup vegetable oil
1/4 th cup Condensed milk
1/4 th cup evaporated milk ( if u don’t have evaporated milk , take 1/4 th cup milk and add 2 tbl spoon powder milk in it )
2/3 rd cup of powdered sugar
1/4 th cup of fresh Orange Juice
1/4 th cup of orange marmalade

For Garnishing / glaze :

1/3 rd cup of orange marmalade
2 tbl spoon of icing sugar
2 tbl spoon of orange juice
Candied orange peel

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 325 FH or 170 centigrade . Grease the pan and line with parchment paper .

2. Sieve the flour , cornstarch , baking soda and baking powder together .

3. Beat sugar , shortening , margarine and vegetable oil until light and fluffy with the electric hand beater . The more lighter and fluffy is this , the softer is the cake . Start with low speed then gradually increase the speed . Add in the eggs , one at a time . Don’t over beat . If you over beat the eggs with the sugar -butter/ margarine/ oil cream , it will become runny and will ruin the texture of the cake . After beating with the eggs , the mixture should be thick . Over-beating will cause it to be runny .

4. Add the marmalade and beat few seconds .

5. Fold in the flour mixture with the cream mixture in three batches alternately with the milk and orange juice , starting with flour and ending with flour . That is , add some of flour first , then milk , then again flour and then juice , then again flour . And fold in gently . Don’t overmix, that would make the cake tight .

6. Pour it in the prepared cake pans , just up to half of the length of the pan ( so that it can rise properly ) , tap the pan few times , cover with aluminium foil like tent ( that would help , even , flat surface without darkening) and bake immediately for 50 minutes or until done . The baking time may vary depending on the oven and pan size . After 30 minutes , remove the foil and check , you will get the idea . Don’t over bake .

7. I baked two cakes with two topping , for one of them , I take it out when almost done and pour some marmalade , whisked with little orange juice over the cake , while it’s still on the pan and again transfer it to oven and bake for another 5 minutes .

8. For the another one , I whisked marmalade , icing sugar and little orange juice and pour it over the cake after taking it out from oven and releasing from the cake pan . Garnish the both cakes with candied orange peel , if you wish.

Notes:

1. Always remember , the temperature is very important in baking cakes . And depending on the ingredients , it may vary . Like cakes like fruit cake or where citrus ingredients are used , it should be baked in low temperature . 325 FH is perfect . One of the reasons being not to taste bitter for using high temperature .

2. Many asked me , how to ensure even baking and smooth , flat top of the cake . The trick I know is to cover them with foil like a tent ( the foil should be little high than the length of the pan , so that the cake doesn’t touch the foil after rising) and bake for half of the baking time or until the cake rises . With this trick , another thing should be followed , that is to tap the pan few times from a little high to release the air bubble and then make an aluminium tent like the pic below and you will see the wonder . Low temperature also ensures even and flat surface .

Look at my smooth surfaced cake!! No crack , no uneven browning!!! isn’t it wonderful!!! Alhamdulillah !! 🙂

3. The reason behind I used vegetable shortening and margarine instead of butter along with vegetable oil is , vegetable oil makes the moistest cake undoubtedly . Vegetable shortening and margarine are solid like butter , though flavorless . Butter has it’s own strong flavor . To keep the orange flavor intact , I chose not to use butter . Moreover margarine also makes cakes moist and help rising fast . They both keep cakes softer for a longer period . Shortening is also responsible for bit coarse texture . I really didn’t want too much light and airy tea cake for this recipe . So wanted to balance with the proportionate use of these three fats . 🙂