While flipping through Sherry Yard's cookbook Desserts by the Yard, I noticed a recipe titled, "Orange 'Butter' Cake." It drew my attention because of the word "Butter" in quotation marks -- according to the headnote, Yard calls it a butter cake because the texture is so buttery, even though there is no butter in it. I was intrigued. She says that almond flour is the secret, and you toast the almond flour (by putting it in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes until it is golden brown and fragrant) before using it in the recipe.
This cake contains only seven ingredients: oranges, fresh ginger, sugar, almond flour, cake flour, baking powder, and eggs (well I guess if you count the powdered sugar used for garnish, it's actually eight). You start out by simmering whole oranges in water for an hour and a half. Then you drain and quarter the fruit, and put the cooled sections in the food processor (skin and all) with fresh ginger and sugar. Meanwhile, you whisk room temperature eggs with sugar until they have tripled in volume, and then alternately add in the orange-ginger-sugar mixture and the dry ingredients.
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Before you put the cake in the oven, the recipe instructs you to tap the pan on a work surface, and then with "the same jerking wrist action you would use to throw a Frisbee, swing the pan around on the counter so that the batter is forced up the side of the pan." I thought this instruction was a bit odd, but the recipe says that this procedure prevents the cake from doming during baking, so I did it. I also fastened a wet evenbake strip around the outside of the pan before putting it in the oven for good measure.
As it turns out, the top of the cake remained absolutely flat and even during baking, with no doming whatsoever. The top of the cake did get very dark in the oven, but it looked okay after being sprinkled with powdered sugar. You are supposed to bake the cake in a springform pan, but I used a regular cake pan (lined with a circle of parchment) and I didn't have any trouble releasing the cake from the pan. I'm very glad that I happened to use a three-inch high pan, because the cake rose pretty close to the top and I think it might have overflowed if I had used my (shorter) springform pan.
I could tell when I cut the cake that it was quite wet, so I'm not sure if I undercooked it. I thought the flavor was strange. I detected a distinct bitterness that I think was from the orange peel, as well as the sharp flavor of ginger in the background. I didn't love the flavor, but the biggest problem for me was the texture -- the cake was simply too wet. Overall, the whole thing tasted like a wet sour orange to me, and I would not describe it as "buttery" at all.
It was only after I baked and tasted this cake that I realized how close this recipe is to Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake -- another cake that I didn't like precisely because it was too wet. As far as the bitterness from the oranges, I think this probably could have been avoided if I had changed the water used to boil the oranges a few times. I changed the water when I cooked the fruit for the clementine cake as well as for Bill Yosses' Orange-Glazed Olive Oil Cake, and both of those cakes tasted wonderful even though they use whole citrus fruits, including the peel.
I felt very badly about the way this cake turned out and the fact that I had inflicted it on my co-workers. But I did get some consolation from the fact that several people made a point of telling me how much they enjoyed the cake after I apologized for it. I can see how this cake could have been tasty if it was not so wet, and I can admit that the fault might be wholly mine for underbaking it. Yard suggests toasting slices of cake before serving, and I wish I had thought about putting some slices in a low oven to dry them out a bit. But I don't really see myself being tempted to give this cake another try.
Recipe: "Orange 'Butter' Cake" from Desserts by the Yard by Sherry Yard.
Previous Posts:
This cake contains only seven ingredients: oranges, fresh ginger, sugar, almond flour, cake flour, baking powder, and eggs (well I guess if you count the powdered sugar used for garnish, it's actually eight). You start out by simmering whole oranges in water for an hour and a half. Then you drain and quarter the fruit, and put the cooled sections in the food processor (skin and all) with fresh ginger and sugar. Meanwhile, you whisk room temperature eggs with sugar until they have tripled in volume, and then alternately add in the orange-ginger-sugar mixture and the dry ingredients.
.JPG)
As it turns out, the top of the cake remained absolutely flat and even during baking, with no doming whatsoever. The top of the cake did get very dark in the oven, but it looked okay after being sprinkled with powdered sugar. You are supposed to bake the cake in a springform pan, but I used a regular cake pan (lined with a circle of parchment) and I didn't have any trouble releasing the cake from the pan. I'm very glad that I happened to use a three-inch high pan, because the cake rose pretty close to the top and I think it might have overflowed if I had used my (shorter) springform pan.
I could tell when I cut the cake that it was quite wet, so I'm not sure if I undercooked it. I thought the flavor was strange. I detected a distinct bitterness that I think was from the orange peel, as well as the sharp flavor of ginger in the background. I didn't love the flavor, but the biggest problem for me was the texture -- the cake was simply too wet. Overall, the whole thing tasted like a wet sour orange to me, and I would not describe it as "buttery" at all.
It was only after I baked and tasted this cake that I realized how close this recipe is to Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake -- another cake that I didn't like precisely because it was too wet. As far as the bitterness from the oranges, I think this probably could have been avoided if I had changed the water used to boil the oranges a few times. I changed the water when I cooked the fruit for the clementine cake as well as for Bill Yosses' Orange-Glazed Olive Oil Cake, and both of those cakes tasted wonderful even though they use whole citrus fruits, including the peel.
I felt very badly about the way this cake turned out and the fact that I had inflicted it on my co-workers. But I did get some consolation from the fact that several people made a point of telling me how much they enjoyed the cake after I apologized for it. I can see how this cake could have been tasty if it was not so wet, and I can admit that the fault might be wholly mine for underbaking it. Yard suggests toasting slices of cake before serving, and I wish I had thought about putting some slices in a low oven to dry them out a bit. But I don't really see myself being tempted to give this cake another try.
Recipe: "Orange 'Butter' Cake" from Desserts by the Yard by Sherry Yard.
Previous Posts:
- "This Cake Is All Wet: Clementine Cake," April 22, 2011.
- "A Baking Leap of Faith: Orange-Glazed Olive Oil Cake with Fleur de Sel," July 9, 2010.
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