Friday, April 20, 2007

Orange You Glad...?

This is an orange cake recipe that I adapted from the Food Network website. The original recipe was posted by two chefs, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Back in the Food Network's infancy, these ladies had a wonderful cooking show called the Two Hot Tamales. The cake is a lovely olive oil cake, not too sweet and oh so moist. I know what you're thinking. "WTF? Olive oil in a cake?" Believe me, I was skeptical the first time I made it. But I'm so glad I put my skepticism aside and baked it; now I'm a believer too.

Orange Cake

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup soy milk

1/2 cup olive oil

1 3/4 cups gluten free flour mix

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Glaze, optional:

juice of 1/2 naval orange

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 tsp. corn syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease bundt pan and dust with a bit of sugar and gf flour. Beat the eggs with the sugar. Beat in the milk, oil and orange zest. In a small bowl, sift the flour with the xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture 1/3 at a time until well incorporated. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove cake and cool slightly in pan, then invert and cool completely. If using the glaze, combine the orange juice, confectioner's sugar, and corn syrup in a small bowl until thoroughly combined and there are no lumps. Drizzle onto cooled cake.

Note: The glaze really boosts the sweetness quotient of this cake. I've made the cake both with and without the glaze, and it tastes great either way.

4 comments:

~M said...

This looks good, and I wonder if you could make this into muffins! Are you using extra virgin olive oil here or (extra) light olive oil (which is mostly flavorless and a substitute for canola or grapseed oil)?

Flamenco Mom said...

I think you could probably make this into muffins. As far as the oil goes, today I used Filipo Berio Olive Oil (I assume it's the "Classic" type, since it doesn't specify EVOO or Light on the bottle), but I've also made it with extra virgin and light oil. I would avoid using Spanish olive oils, since those do tend to have a more pronounced flavor.

Lynn Barry said...

"orange you glad" I love that...you are so funny.This looks divine...except for the three eggs I am good to go...so maybe I can adapt it yet again...the challenge. HUGS

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I made this cake and well, it didn't work for me...mainly because I didn't use a bundt cake pan...don't own one, and didn't feel like asking neighbors for one ;)...so I used a large layer cake pan. Is this supposed to be kind of custardy? One thing though the flavor is very nice. What a surprise too, & I used Extra virgen olive oil..very strong stuff too, but for some reason, the orange mellows it out and it becomes a very sophositcated flavor. Even leaves a mellow after flavor. very nice. Anyway, I feel like I did something wrong because the "batter" was very liquid. Oh and also in the recipe proper, you forgot to put the amount of orange zest needed...so I improvised. sorry to point that out, I bet you don't think total strangers are testing your recipes ! lol, anyhow thanks again, I will try it again but add more flour for a thicker batter. Monica