Whole-Orange Cake

This is another dairy-free cake. It came to me from my Mom in Brazil. The original recipe processes a whole orange, with the rind and everything and uses two cups of sugar. Most likely to counter the bitterness of the white rind. I found that by doing just a bit of extra work by first zesting the orange and then removing the white pit, one can reduce the amount of sugar.

The batter is quite liquid, thus I bake in a tubular pan with removable centre, but I put the baking pan into a baking sheet to avoid spills in the oven.

In 2017 I decided to research Greek cuisine and I discover a recipe for an old Greek semolina-orange cake that also used two whole orange, but it cooked the oranges first. I do wonder if this Brazilian recipe is a tropical version of the old Greek one.

Ingredients:

 

• 1 whole orange
• 1 1/2 cup of sugar (10 1/2 oz)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of flavourless cooking oil (7 1/2 oz)
• 2 tablespoons of baking powder
• 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (12 1/2 oz)
• 1 cup of sweetened orange juice

Procedure:

 

1. Preheat the oven and prep the fan
   • Preheat the oven on to 350 F.
   • Put a clean baking sheet into the oven (you may cover it with aluminum foil to avoid spills into the baking sheet).
   • Spray a tubular pan with removable centre.
2. Prep the orange
   • Put the sugar in the bowl of a food processor.
   • Zest the whole orange and add the orange zest to the sugar.
   • Process for about 30 seconds.
   • Remove the white rind from the orange and discard the rind.
3. Finish the batter
   • Add the salt to the sugar-zest mixture.
   • Add the peeled orange and process until it forms a liquid paste.
   • Add the eggs to the sugar-orange-zest mixture.
   • Process for a minute.
   • Them slowly pour the oil through the feeding tube of the food processor with the processor running.
   • Using a rubber spatula, transfer the content of the food processor to a large bowl.
   • Using a large strained, sift the flour and the baking powder into the wet mixture and incorporate. Best is to do it in three batches to avoid lumps.
4. Bake
   • Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven, put the prepared tubular pan on the centre.
   • Put the batter into the prepared pan. and transfer, with the baking sheet, to the oven.
   • Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out very clean.
   • Remove from oven, put on top of a baking sheet and pour the orange juice on top of the hot cake.
   • Let it stand for 5 minutes.
   • Run a clean sharp and narrow knife around the edge of the tube pan and lift the center to remove the outside of the tube pan.
   • Put the cake, with the center of the tubular pan still on, into a rack to cool.
   • Let it cool for 30 minutes before removing the center of the pan.

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