Let’s bake an orange cake

Baking with Kids is the ultimate fun. Did you check out the post wherein I had shared some tips while baking with kids along with our favorite Banana Cinnamon Walnut Cake recipe?

Every day needs to be special, well that’s what my sonny says. Helping me with cooking new dishes, and trying his hands on baking has been our absolute favorite these days. The orange cake was a pure experiment due to our love for Oranges, but it turned out so refreshing, that now it’s a weekly routine to cater to our dessert cravings, while we are all indoors.

• This is an Eggless Orange Cake recipe, made out of fresh orange juice. But in case you don’t have seasonal oranges then you can opt for packed orange juice too. Though we love to have it without any icing, you have the choice as it can be frosted and decorated. Similar to this recipe, you can also bake orange muffins, which can be a perfect treat for kids.  
• Further, I’ve tried making an orange cake with whole wheat flour and powdered jaggery instead of the normal all-purpose flour and sugar, and it tasted perfect. It tastes best when served warm.

It is one of the simplest and super delicious cake and it takes just 15 minutes as preparation time. 

Recipe: Eggless orange cake

Total Time: 5m Prep Time: 15m Bake Time: 35m

Ingredients: 

Orange Zest: 1 Tablespoon (Zest gives a very strong and pleasant flavor. Simply grate the orange peel, after washing and wiping the orange thoroughly. Don’t grate the white portion (pith) of the peel, as it tastes bitter. Grate it with a normal grater and collect one tablespoon of the zest.)

Orange Juice: 1/2 cup (Try to make it fresh, without any seeds). Also, if you are using wheat flour, then you’ll have to add 3-4 tbsps off juice more. 

Dry Ingredients: 

• Flour: 1 1/4th cup
• Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
• Sugar: 1/2 cup normal white powdered sugar or 1 cup brown sugar (as per the sweetness of brown sugar)

Wet Ingredients:

• Thick Yogurt/Hung curd: 1/2 cup (You can substitute it with 1/2 cup condensed milk too)
• Olive oil: 1/4th cup (or substitute with melted butter)
• Orange Essence: 1/4 tsp (optional, we didn’t have one at home, so I skipped using essence)
• Orange Juice and Orange Zest as shared above

Method:

• Add sugar, hung curd and orange zest in a bowl and mix it well until it gets a fine consistency.
• Add oil to the above mixture, and beat it until mixed properly.
• Now, sieve the mixture of flour, baking powder and baking soda at least thrice (since this is an eggless recipe).
• Add the dry mixture to the orange zest batter (already made). 
• Stir it, while adding the orange juice gradually to the mixture, in small parts. You can add orange essence and orange food color (if you prefer). I didn’t use any of these two.
• Oil the baking tin and spread some flour evenly on the base and sides of tin! Pour the mixture into the baking tin. If you have baking paper, then simply brush the tin with oil and place the baking paper. Oil the baking paper evenly. 
• Bake the cake in a pre-heated oven at ˜200 degrees for 35-40mins now!
• Check once baked with a toothpick.

Slice it and rejoice your refreshing orange cake, as a dessert or as snacks too. Baking with kids is fun, do involve them!

If you bake using this recipe, do share, how it turned out to be.