Orange butter cake, with variations

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 13

Orange butter cake, with variations

Alison Holst’s

Food Facts

Most people enjoy a light butter cake which has been flavoured with orange. I use oranges, mandarins, and tangelos to flavour cakes like this. I use most of the finely grated rind in the cake, and use juice, and a very small amount of rind in the icing. Grate the peel as finely as possible — it makes such a difference to the flavour. The finer the grater the more of the orange-flav-oured, distinctive oils will be freed from the skin. If you find that a lot of the fine rind gets stuck on the grater use a brush of some sort to free it so you can use it all in your cake mixture. Because oranges and mandarins have sweet juice,

I sometimes add a few grains of citric acid crystals to their juice before I make the icing. I guess you could get almost the same effect by using orange, mandarin, or tangelo rind and lemon juice to flavour the icing. Try it if you like. 125 g butter '

1 cup castor sugar 3 eggs 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Vi cup milk Grated rind of 1 orange or tangelo or 2 mandarins. Measure ingredients carefully for this cake. Use level standard metric cups and spoons. Do not pack the flour into the cup measure. .Soften, but do not melt, the butter. Cream it with the sugar using an electric mixer or food processor. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Sift the flour and baking powder on top of the creamed mixture, add the milk, and the finely grated rind, then combine all mixtures, either using a rubber spatula, or the food processor very briefly. Turn the mixture when everything has been combined evenly, but not overmixed, into, a prepared 23cm ring pan or prepared 20cm square pan or 23cm round pan. To prepare a ring or round pan, grease and flour (or spray) the sides and put baking paper or greaseproof paper on its base. For a square tin, lie a piece of

baking or greaseproof paper down one side, across the bottom and up the opposite side, taking care that the paper reaches into the corners. Level the top of the cake.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 C. A ring cake will cook in 40 to 45 minutes, and a solid cake will cook in about an hour. To check for doneness, press the centre of the cake with

your finger or insert a skewer, and watch the edges. When the centre springs back, the skewer comes out clean and the edges shrink from the sides, the cake is cooked.

Leave to stand in the tin for five minutes, then run a knife round the edges and turn out carefully. Turn right side up again and leave to cool on a rack. When cold, ice with butter icing made by mixing together 1 tablespoon soft butter, 1 cup icing sugar, a little finely grated peel and 1-2 tablespoons juice.

For special occasions, split the cake when cold and fill with butter cream, before icing the top. Replace some of the milk with juice if desired. Stir the milk in first, then add the juice. This makes a very tender cake.

To make an orange-cho-colate cake add ¥4 cup finely grated dark chocolate to the uncooked mixture. Grate more chocolate over the icing. For an orange and passionfruit cake add the pulp of a passionfruit to the cake, and one to the icing if desired.