Eggless Orange Cake

Whisking a cake, is more than creaming butter and sugar. For me, it is equal measures of indulgence, fun and absorption. The thought of that elusive perfect cake, keeps lingering in my mind and occupies all the space, in my tiny mind. And I search for 'that' recipe. Everytime.

Once the recipe has been settled for, the fun part of making the cake starts. Seeing few simple ingredients to come together to form a creamy sweet batter, is a pleasure. And then to see the evenly baked, perfectly done cake, emerge from the oven, is a mix of relief and delight.

After the cake, gets its due rest, it becomes my canvas to have fun. With sketchy ideas of the final look or even flavour combinations, and with even sketchier skill sets to decorate, I still jump into the game. And soon the game is won, with something simple and pleasing.

This time, the eggless orange cake became a "sunny" ground, with fluffy peaks. Inspite of it not at all being perfect, I loved this one - I guess, has to do with the bright color. Just made me feel happier and brighter. Yes, we all need some sunshine in life. And this one had some tiny butterflies also taking flights in the sun...as my friend described it :)

This cake was also my first cake on order. Felt good, doing it and hence I ensured that all requests were met: eggless - check, no chocolate - check, less cream - check, and no - butter too. Wow seems like a keeper of a recipe for easy eggless cake.

Eggless Orange Cake Recipe

Recipe Source: Here

(Easy eggless cake, flavoured with fresh orange juice. Makes an 8' inch cake)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Condensed milk - 1 can (400g) sweetened

Orange Juice - 1/2 cup

Oil/ Butter - 1/2 cup (I used oil)

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Powdered sugar - 1-2 tbsp

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Orange zest - 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat oven at 180C. Line an 8" pan
Sift together, all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda, to mix
In a separate bowl, whisk together - condensed milk, orange juice, powdered sugar, oil or butter, vanilla essence and lemon juice, till all mixed
Add this wet mix, to the dry ingredients and combine, till no lumps remain
Add orange zest and fold it in the batter.
Place batter in prepared pan. Tap to remove air bubbles and bake for about 25mins, till tester comes clean
Keep aside to cool, before cutting it

Note: If using fresh juice, check for the sweetness level. For me even 1tbsp was more than enough. Or you can use packaged juice, and skip sugar, all together too.

For Vanilla Frosting:

(Its a very light and not very sweet frosting, so works great to make cakes bit lighter)

Ingredients:

2 packets of Dream whip frosting

1/2 cup cold milk

Yellow food color

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Add milk to the dream whip powder, in a bowl. With a hand blender, whip them together, on high speed, till it forms soft peaks. Add food color and vanilla essence and whip again. Put in piping bag, and use as desired.

Note - Adjust consistency, by adding drops of milk, if needed.