Orange cake with Chocolate Glaze

November for me means the season of baking. Not only is our wedding anniversary is in November, my Honey's birthday is also in November. Later December is again my Mother's birthday followed by the New Year!! So I end up baking for all these occasions. My most successful has been the plain cake and fruit cake. But this time around I have trying to do something more than just those two cakes that I have always made. I have always made cakes from scratch, just like my Mom. Mom makes excellent Mango Cake, Honey Cake apart from the plain and fruit cakes. She also makes excellent biscuits. Just yummy I should say. She went to pastry and cake classes conducted by Bangalore University long back and she seemed to make real good cakes even in the most pathetic of ovens! The only Johnson ovens, small round ones with a glass top... the real olden day ovens too. Those ovens did not have temperature control or anything, just switch it on and that's it.. I on the other hand cannot bake with my hand mixer, my bake ware, my oven and all the assorted odds and ends in my kitchen! Any ways I do want to be half as good as my mom.

So inspired by the baking season, I tried making Orange cake, of course substituting mangoes for oranges in my mother's Mango Cake recipe. It turned out soft and moist. But the flavor was not as robust has I would have wanted. I guess I should have added a small shot of Grand Marnier to the batter and it would have improved the flavor. I will try that next time around.
This time around, I made a really small cake, we demolished it the very same evening though!


All purpose flour 1 cup
Orange juice 1/4 cup
Orange Zest 1 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda 1/4 tsp
Salt a pinch
Milk 2 tbsp
Butter 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick)
Honey 1/4 cup
Powdered sugar 2 tbsp + additional to dust
Egg 1

For the chocolate glaze:
Dark Chocolate chunks 1/2 cup chopped
Orange juice 2 tbsp
Sugar 1 tbsp

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt twice or thrice and set it aside.
  
• Separate egg white and yolk
  
• Cream butter and sugar. Combine honey, milk, yolk ,orange juice and zest while creaming on low speeds.
  
• Add spoon fulls of flour to the mixture and continue mixing on low speeds. Keep adding the flour tablespoon by tablespoon till the flour is all combines and the batter is smooth.
• Beat egg white till stiff peaks.
  
• Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.
• Grease a 6" baking dish. Pour the batter into the dish Tap to spread the batter evenly
• Pop it into the oven and bake it for about 25-30 minutes.
• To test if the cake is done, insert a toothpick at the very center of the cake. If it comes our dry and neat, the cake is done.
  
• For the glaze, Melt the chocolate chunks on a double broiler, stir in the sugar and orange juice and stir to combine well. Remove and cool. Alternately, dunk the chocolate, orange juice and sugar into a microwave proof dish. and microwave for about a minute (may be minute and a half) Stir well to combine and set it aside to slightly cool and thicken.
• Once the cake is cook enough to handle, un-mould it. Pour over the chocolate glaze all over. Cool and dust it with the powdered sugar.