Chicken Soup for the Soul

I was feeling a little blue with the daunting thoughts of living in a brand new city shortly. For some it may thing it is a dream comes true. For me, it was more jittery than excitement. And trust me, i am still looking for loophole how I can myself out of the decision I made in haste.

After stumbling upon Mary's blog, I spent hours reading thru all her dated posts and, boy, I was glad I did. I felt rejuvenated and empowered like I just walked out of a session with my life coach! Only that it didn't leave me a cent poorer! Ha.

Aside from feeding my soul, I also picked up a good recipe that fed my stomach well!

Since I have only oranges in fridge, I use that instead of oranges. Here's my version of the orange cake:

Simple Orange Cake

Recipe adapted from here

125g butter

grated rind from 2 big oranges

1C castor sugar*

3 eggs

1/2C milk

1 & 1/2 C self-raising flour

1/4C orange juice (I used the ready-to-drink type)

3 tbsp poppy seeds.

Method:

Put everything (except poppy seeds) into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and changed in colour. Fold in poppy seed.

Pour into a tin lined with baking paper and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes or cooked. It’s cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. You can dust with some icing sugar or pour syrup over it.

• Syrup - I read from The Cake Bible that syrup helps to keep the cake moist and tender. Simply use water/orange juice + sugar to make simple sugar. Cake that has been basked with syrup also keeps better than those without. If you are not serving the cake to kids, you can also basked with Cointreau or Grand Marnier - I used this - I love liquor in my cake!
• * Sugar - I reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup since I used sweetened orange juice (ready-to-drink type).
• Poppy seed - I only added 1 tbsp in the cake... that why you do not see many "spots" in my cake. I am gonna triple the amount next time round!

This is a very easy recipe for beginners, and you have only 1 bowl to wash! A simple yet reliable recipe.

If I must complain, I think the orange flavour is too subtle. Maybe I will need to use more orange zest.