Orange Pound Cake

Now this is an out of turn recipe, I had something else planned for today but I made this one yesterday and loved it… the texture, the oh so sweet aroma…. everything and hence I had to post it today 🙂

Some days back Sue shared this recipe with me on FB, I love oranges in baked goodies, I think they add freshness to them and hence this was a recipe I knew I had to try, luckily I also had some oranges lying at home… I loved the cake that came out, the sweetness was just right and it left this nice orange freshness in the mouth… The only complaint I had with the cake was my fault, I over baked it a little bit… would have loved to take it out of oven say 5 mins before

 

See the blackish side to know what I am saying about overbaking?

 

 

I did make some changes to the recipe though, one I replaced some of the maida with atta (I was tempted to replace more but I thought pound cakes are usually heavier and I didnt want to take the risk, next I make this I will put more atta than this time) and added more orange juice to compensate for that. A lot of people asking me how do I keep subsituting maida with whole wheat flour, yes I do because Ojas eats a lot of baked goodies and I dont like giving him lot of stuff with maida. Most of the baking in the house these days is done with atta (atleast half atta and half maida). The key thing to remember when one is substituting maida with whole wheat flour is that whole wheat flour absorbs more moisture than maida so one has to increase the quantity of mositure in the goodies… moisture in cakes typically comes from water, milk, juice, eggs… And the second thing that whole wheat cakes typically are a little heavier than maida cakes.. this can be usually be solved by increasing some of the raising agents like eggs or baking powder or adding a pinch of baking soda. But remember don’t overdo them. If you keep these two things in mind, baking with whole wheat flour is not as scary as it feels.

What I used

• 1  all purpose flour/maida
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking pwd
• 1/2 cup white sugar (I used powdered sugar)
• 5 tbsp oil
• 9 tbsps orange juice (the original recipe had 6tbsp)
• 1 tsp orange zest (I love to od on zest the original had 1tsp)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk

How I made it

• Sieve together both the flours, baking powder and salt
• In a bowl, combine butter and sugar. Whisk with hand blender or your own hands to make a smooth creamy mixture.
• Now add the eggs to the mixture and combine well.
• Add vanilla essence, orange zest and orange juice and combine well.
• Fold in the dry ingredients little by little alternating with milk.
• Pour batter into the greased and floured pan (I used a loaf pan).
• Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 30 – 35 mts (I left it for 35 and I think it was over done, would have loved to off it at 30mins, also I used a non stick dark pan if u are using a tin baking pan increase the temp to 180) or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Let it cool completely before taking it out, slice and eat if you have really lasted that long 🙂

And this is off to the weekly Bake Off Event