I bake for a couple of reasons.
Either...
A) I'm hungry.
B) I'm bored.
C) My mother asks me to.
D) There is an ingredient in the house that is about to expire or perish...which my mother usually points out.
Today, I baked for all four reasons, the fourth one sort of being the main one. We had a 16oz tub of sour cream that had been sitting in the fridge for quite a while. It didn't have an expiration date on it, just one of those "best if used by" things, which doesn't really refer to safety of the item, just the quality...so, I didn't see what the rush was. But, what mommy wants, mommy gets. (I guess that means C was the main reason?)
So I gawked at some food on Foodgawker and I kept getting annoyed because half of the stuff called for like 2 sticks or more of butter, and I'm actually trying to bake healthy for a change. I kept going back and forth between pages and finally settled on this orange cake recipe which belonged to a Grandma Ida. Everyone knows grandmas are the best cooks on the face of the earth, so I knew this recipe had to be pretty legit.
As luck would have it, I had literally one orange left in the fridge, which was alright because I just needed one tablespoon of the rind, right?
Wrong.
I also needed some freshly squeezed orange juice, which I either didn't pay attention to when I was reading the recipe or I just forgot when the aroma of the sweet citrusy orange hit me in the face. Either way, the orange and all the juice inside of it ended up in my stomach, and not in the glaze like it was supposed to.
So I ended up improvising with Tropicana orange juice. I also used vegetable oil in the cake instead of vegetable shortening. *Shudder*. Just writing the word shortening creeps me out. I can't imagine ever using it in anything. EVER. Not unless I was suicidal or something.
Online, I found that there was mixed opinions about substituting oil for shortening, so I was a little worried about how the cake would turn out. But as soon as I pulled it out the oven, all my worries went out the window. The cake rose beautifully high and was a lovely golden brown color. It was light and moist in texture, similar to a pound cake, and had a spot on orange flavor. I want to try it with freshly squeezed orange juice next time, to see if it tastes better with a more natural orange flavor. Regardless, I think it was still exceptionally tasty and definitely a good way to use up our not-really-going-to-expire sour cream. Good lookin out Grams!
Grandma Ida's Orange Cake
Ingredients:For the cake:1/2 cup vegetable oil1 cup sugar2 large eggs2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon orange rind
3/4 cup sour cream
For the glaze:
1/2 cup Tropicana orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.Using an electric hand mixer, combine oil and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and mix to combine. Sift flour and baking soda together and add to sugar mixture.Stir in orange rind and sour cream, and pour mixture into a well-greased bundt (or other circular) pan.Bake for 36-40 minutes or until golden brown. I stuck a knife in mine at about 36 minutes and it came out clean, so I took it out. While the cake is still warm, invert onto a cake plate. Combine orange juice and sugar until sugar dissolves (microwave for a bit if needed) and pour over the warm cake. Enjoy!Adapted from Playing House
mashAllah it looks really good. Your so funny eating the orange lol I would do something like that :p Hey I use shortening a lot its great for baking...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's great for baking but it's really bad for your health! You should consider some substitutes. In any case, thanks for stopping by! :)
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