It has been a while since I have participated in the Tuesdays with Dorie baking and I decided to get back to it this week by baking Odile’s Fresh Orange Cake. Luckily for me, I happened to have a bowl of Sky Valley heirloom oranges from Trader Joe’s camping out on the kitchen counter and this gave me a way to use them before they went bad.
The recipe is simple and easy to prepare, it was also very easy to cut in half thanks to the fact that Dorie includes the weights for the ingredients in the recipe. Honestly, if you aren’t using a scale at home, you really need to pick one up. It is easier to weigh out ingredients and it guarantees accuracy.
To decorate the cake, I followed the directions except rather than use slices of whole oranges, I cut the oranges into sections-not really the supremes but close enough! And just as Dorie suggested, I only used half of the syrup to soak the cake. The rest was drizzled over the slices as I cut them from the cake. The flavor is strongly orange but not overpowering or cloying, either one is easy to do with orange. The soaking from drizzling half of the syrup on the warm cake gave it a nice amount of moisture without making it wet or soggy.
My half batch of batter made a 6 inch cake which actually was more than we could eat. We both like oranges and will snack on them but when an orange flavored dessert is offered, neither of us will go crazy with it. This cake would probably be wonderful with tangerines or blood oranges so I may try it again! To see what the other bakers came up with, be sure to visit the website and if you would like to bake along with us, pick up a copy of Baking Chez Moi and head to the kitchen!
will garden for cake 