Orange Pound Cake

There are certain things in life that I cannot do, experience or feel. Some of it is because of my own doing, while others just didn't happen. Some I fought, some I gave up… but most importantly I tried my best to make peace with it. Mostly…

Music and me, we have an on-and-off relationship. I’m not sure whether I can call it a relationship, since it’s mostly one sided. I do care a lot about music and enjoy it, but music doesn't reciprocate my feelings in any way. So this happened on one of those days, when I was trapped again in the magic of music.

I took a whole day off and listened to some great music and by the end of it, I was feeling happy, exhilarated and even wondered why I wasn’t on a steady relationship with music! Well, I didn't have to wait long for the answer…

After having listened to countless songs that day, one particular song started to play in loop in my head. I couldn't figure out the words, but the tune was loud and clear. At first, I was curious about which song it was and tried hard recollecting it. Then it kinda started to nag me, I was becoming restless to find out the song. I tried googling with some lyrics, some vague ideas, but nothing.

Though I very well knew how it’s going to end, I decided to take the last plunge. I started humming the tune to Jose.

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Being a music lover, he came up with many suggestions. From his face, I knew that he was coming up with these suggestions on his own and not based on my humming. After all, it’s a known fact that I can't even sing a single line, even if my life depended on it. He tried hard to help me, but couldn’t.

I was frustrated and kinda angry at myself. I started picking up all those things that I can't do and  was gearing up for a pity party. I made a list and I was pretty convinced I was doomed.

I was about to give up, but then suddenly out of nowhere I thought of not giving up! What if I can't do X, Y, Z there are many more alphabets out there and I can try.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me tell you something. Usually, when I’m feeling down, I take the easy route and give up. Since talking yourself up is kinda exhausting, I prefer to wallow in self pity. And because I was feeling the other way around for a change, I decided to work on it.

That’s when it occurred to me, I could bake! Though I’m no baker extraordinaire, I’m not a lousy one either. So I pulled out my list of “to try cake recipes” and baked this cake. I’m glad I did, because it’s one of the best cakes I’ve baked so far.

Now that I baked an outstanding cake, if I say so myself, I tend to agree with the statement… “All izzzz well”. Had the cake decided to do a number on me, well, there’s always pity party to cheer you up ;)

About the cake – I loved everything about it. It was a bit dense, buttery with very fine crumbs, and a moist texture. The flavour and scent of orange was very much there without overpowering the whole taste. It has an old world charm. If you ask me, a cake should be like this. Looks simple, tastes great without any artificial flavours and colours. Honestly, I'm in love with this cake and I was finding it really difficult to walk away from it ;) This is a must try recipe if you like these kinda cakes. Please do try this and am sure, you will also love it.

Happy weekend :)

Here is the recipe…

Using a hand held beater or in bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes…

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Add in eggs, vanilla and zest and mix until combined, scraping sides as necessary…

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and finally the orange juice, mixing until smooth…

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Whisk all glaze ingredients together. Add more or less orange juice to achieve consistency you prefer…

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Recipe adapted from here

Please read the “notes” section before proceeding with the recipe

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Orange Pound Cake

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Course: Dessert

Servings: 8

Author: Maria Jose Martin

Ingredients

• ▢ 3/4 cup Butter (170 gms, I used unsalted)
• ▢ 1.5 cups Sugar
• ▢ 3 Eggs (@room temp)
• ▢ 1 tsp Vanilla extract / essence
• ▢ 1 tsp Orange zest (refer notes)
• ▢ 1.5 cups Plain flour
• ▢ 1/2 cup Freshly squeezed orange juice

Orange Glaze

• ▢ 1 cup Powdered sugar / icing sugar (refer notes)
• ▢ 1 tsp Orange zest (refer notes)
• ▢ 2-3 tbsp Orange Juice

Instructions

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  Preheat oven to 180 C, 10 mins before baking.
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  Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with a long strip of parchment paper so the edges hang over, making it easy to remove the cake from the pan. Spray again lightly.
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  In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in eggs, vanilla and zest and mix until combined, scraping sides as necessary.
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  Stir in flour until incorporated and finally the orange juice, mixing until smooth.
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  Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes until center is set.
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  If you notice the edges are browning too fast, tent the pan with foil and continue baking.
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  Allow cake to cool in pan for 15 minutes and then remove from pan before glazing.
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  For the glaze
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  Whisk all glaze ingredients together. Add more or less orange juice to achieve consistency you prefer.
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  Pour over cooled cake.

Notes

There is no raising agent (baking powder or baking soda) for this cake. The author has said the eggs does that work here.
You can also use lemons instead of orange in this recipe.
Also, in the original post, some people said their cake getting browned fast without middle getting cooked. So I made this as two cakes instead of 1. I made a small loaf and a big one. The big loaf was ready in 40-45 mins and the small one in 25-30 mins.
For the cake and for the icing , I used the zest of 1 orange each.
I think unless you prefer a very sweet icing, only 1/2 - 3/4 cup of icing sugar is required for the glaze. The cake tastes great even without the icing.
You can store it at room temp for 2-3 days.

Tried this recipe? Let others know by...mentioning @mariasmenu or tagging #mariasmenu

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