Let Them Eat Cake

The them in question is my friend Trudi and her man. They will be stopping by any time now, and Trudi will be dropping off her machine and saving my sanity. So it would be rude not to be able to offer them a slice of cake (or two).

Today I decided to go with a treat Trudi hasn't sampled before.

Orange Cake.

First up, you will need some oranges. Technically, you can make this cake with bought juice and forego the zest but, trust me, it is much nicer with freshly squeezed juice and the zest in it. Here's the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 375F/190C/Gas 5 (Fan oven people lower the temperature as required.)

2 cups plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup (4 ozs) butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
Finely grated rind of one or two oranges
3/4 cup orange juice

Mix (sift if you are so inclined - I never am) together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and continue to mix until well blended. Add the grated orange rind. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the juice, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Divide the batter between two lined, round 8" cake tins. Bake for approximately half an hour, until the cake springs back when gently prodded, or a skewer comes out clean when poked in the middle.

I ice this cake using a mix of butter, icing sugar and orange juice. I try to keep the ratio of butter and icing sugar fairly even so as not to make it too, too sweet. Sometimes I put raspberry jam between the layers rather than icing.

The result looks like this. I can't show you a cut piece as Trudi isn't here yet so no cutting happening yet.

If you try this recipe I hope you like it.

Susan