The Orange Almond Cake




The last four years has been a memorable journey, I have changed base from Mumbai to Bangalore, I have a new life, some new friends, a new perspective to live and love. I am a changed person too. However the one thing that has remained constant is my love for food and to feed.

There is a certain intimacy with food I share - a wonderful deep relationship. It’s a sense of joy, it connects me to the people I love, it fills up my home with some great conversations and laughter. It makes me happy.  It fills up those voids In my being that I don’t even know exists.

I have stayed away from the blog for several years, just been busy doing mundane things. I have really missed blogging, I have missed the excitement of some devoted friends and family who have been quick to try the recipes and give feedback, I missed the whole process of first cooking then experimenting with the DSLR which I since then have abandoned, but what I have missed most is sharing the magic in the mess of my kitchen.

The Orange Almond Cake is a recipe straight out my friend Tushita Patel's book ‘Flash in the pan’, someone who’s cooking I hugely admire and am inspired from.

It melts into your mouth titillating your taste buds with flavors of  spices fused with orange and lemon. It’s the most exotic, delicious, classy desert, and yet simple and very easy. Undoubtedly the most favorite of anyone who has savored it. On countless occasions it has been my present to people. Center of attraction on most dinner tables. Endless number of times I have bribed my brother and his friends with the Orange cake and the sweetest memory I have is when a very young lovely girl asked me to bake a few to be sent out as her wedding invite.

The most treasured recipe,
The  Orange Almond Cake – From Tushita Patel’s Collection of Recipes/ Flash In the Pan.

Ingredients:
For the Batter
  • ·      50 gms Bread Crumbs ( Any Bread Crumb)
  • ·      180 ml vegetable oil ( Saffola or any other brand)
  • ·      4 Eggs
  • ·      180 gms castor sugar ( I prefer Blue Bird/ alternatively I grind and use regular sugar 180 gms)
  • ·      1 + ½ tsp Baking Powder
  • ·      1 Orange Zest (Malta Orange)
  • ·      1 Lime/ Nimbu Zest
  • ·      120 gm crushed Almond (I grind the regular almond in a blender)

For the Syrup
  • ·      1 Orange Juice
  • ·      1 Lime/Nimbu Juice
  • ·      3 to 4 Sticks Cinnamon
  • ·      4 to 5 Cloves


Method :
  • ·      No preheating of the oven needed
  • ·      Add all the batter ingredients in a bowl, and mix with an electric hand mixer for 4 – 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
  • ·      Set the oven at 170 degrees C
  • ·      Pour the batter in an 8” round tin and bake for 45 – 50 minutes.
  • ·      Boil the syrup ingredients on high heat for about a minute, low down the heat and let it simmer for 4 – 5 minutes. Set aside and allow it to cool down.
  • ·      Remove the cake from the oven allow it to cool down. Upturn the cake on a plate.
  • ·      Now pour the syrup evenly on top of it.
  • ·      Garnish it with crushed almonds, zest of lime and orange.









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