Friday, February 17, 2012

Kinnow Orange Cake

When talking about oranges, the one thing that is unanimous with all kinds of oranges is the zesty fresh flavor and the very obvious sweet tang. Every bite of this orange cake has that orangey kick, making it the perfect accompaniment to your evening tea.


For this cake, I adapted Leite's Culinaria's Satsuma Orange Cake. The cake is very different in that the peel remains on the orange slices, imparting an amazing sweet bitterness that we associate orange peels with. The original recipe recommends using thin skinned oranges, but since we only get no more than three varieties of the fruit in India, my best bet for thin skinned was the kinnow, which the market is full of these days.

I have tweaked the original recipe, especially the glaze part. When I made this cake for the first time, the glaze reduction turned into hard candy when poured on the cake, ruining the flavor and making it extremely difficult to enjoy the real flavor of the cake.

Kinnow Orange Cake

- makes one 8-inch cake

Glazed oranges:

3 kinnows
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Cake:

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar or regular white sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup semolina (sooji)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Grate the zest of one kinnow and juice the fruit to get 1/3 cup juice. You may need another kinnow to get the required amount.

Slice the remaining two kinnows into rounds, about 1/4 inch thick. Microwave these on HI for a minute. In the meantime, add 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, kinnow juice, and salt to a saucepan and allow it to simmer on low heat. Add the sliced kinnow slices and let them cook for about 15-20 minutes till the peels can be sliced easily with a fork. Cook for another five minutes if the peels are tough. Reserve the remaining syrup.

Preheat oven to 160C. While the kinnow slices are simmering, cream butter, sugar and eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add flour, semolina, baking powder, salt, and orange zest. Mix everything together with a spatula. Pour the batter in an 8 inch pan and layer the softened fruit slices on top of the cake, as indicated in the picture.


Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove cake from the pan and pierce the entire cake using a skewer. Pour the reserved glaze on top of the cake. Serve warm.


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