For the past week or so, my mother has been baking a few varieties of fruit cakes using different fresh fruits.

Today, I will share my mother’s recipe for her scrumptious orange cake, which is one of my new favourites.

Orange cake

Time taken: 1 hour

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• Oranges – 2 + few slices (for topping syrup, optional)
• Mandarin oranges – 2
• Sugar – 2 tbsp (sauce) + ½ cup
• Orange food colouring – few drops
• Vegetable margarine – ¾ cup
• Whole grain oats – ½ cup
• All-purpose flour – 1 cup
• Baking soda – ½ tsp
• Baking powder – 1 tsp
• Marmalade, for topping (optional)
• Icing sugar – 2 tbsp (for topping syrup, optional)

Method:

1. Wash the 2 oranges and then peel the oranges. Keep aside the two oranges to make orange juice.
2. Take the orange peel, finely scraped or chopped and place them in a saucepan. Pour ¼ cup of water into the saucepan.
3. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and a few drops of orange food colouring to the saucepan. Heat the orange rind sauce for about 5 mins until it thickens.
4. Whisk the margarine and ½ cup of sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the orange rind sauce to the bowl.
5. Add the whole grain oats to the bowl and stir.
6. Make 1 cup of orange juice with the peeled oranges and the mandarin oranges. Stir in the orange juice into the bowl.
7. Sift the flour together with the baking soda and baking powder. Gradually add the flour to the mixing bowl, ensuring that there are no lumps and the batter is smooth.
8. Add a few drops of the orange food colouring to the bowl and mix well.
9. Transfer the cake batter to the baking tray and bake the orange cake at 170⁰C/338⁰F for 35 – 45 mins.
10. After the cake cools, either spread marmalade evenly on the top of the cake or else make an orange syrup to pour over the cake by heating pieces of oranges with 2 tbsp icing sugar over low heat.
11. Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.