The recipe I am posting today is a super delicious, fragrant and moist Portuguese Orange Cake or Bolo de Laranja. Bolo means cake and Laranja means Orange in Portuguese.
I love to bake! Be it cakes, cookies or brownies. However I am not a big fan of icings or frostings on cake. I prefer tea cakes or cakes without frosting.
This cake uses a basic sponge cake recipe. The addition of orange juice gives it a delicious tartness and the orange rind adds another layer of flavour. Instead of a frosting, the top of this cake is coated with an orange syrup glaze which turns it into sticky sweet goodness.
It doesn’t take too much effort or time to make this cake and is perfect accompaniment to your evening tea.
Ingredients:
- Butter 120g
- Powdered sugar 120 g
- Flour 120g
- Eggs 2
- Baking Powder ½ tsp
- Baking soda ½ tsp
- Vanilla Essence 2 drops
- Orange rind 1 tbsp
- Orange Juice ½ cup or juice of 1 orange
- Powdered sugar for dusting the cake: 1-2 tsp
For the orange syrup or orange glaze
- Juice of 1 orange
- 2-3 tbsp sugar
Method:
Pre heat the oven to 160 degree C.
Keep the ingredients ready.
Preparing the cake tin:
Grease the cake tin using butter and then add a spoonful of flour and turn it all around so that the flour coats the greased tin all over.
Preparing the cake batter:
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl using a wooden spoon until the butter turns pale yellow.
Add one egg at a time and mix well. Add a tbsp of flour after each egg and mix so that the batter does not split. Add the vanilla essence. Add the orange juice and orange rind and mix well.
Now add the flour, baking soda and baking powder and fold the mixture with a light hand till all the ingredients are well combined. Pour the mixture in the cake tin.
Bake at 160 degree C for 35-40 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Preparing the orange syrup:
After you put the cake into the oven for baking, prepare the orange syrup by heating up the juice of one orange and sugar for 5-6 mins.
Once the cake is baked, turn the cake out onto a rack and pour the orange syrup all over the top of the cake while the cake is still hot.
Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing it.
Tips:
Add the flour immediately after adding the orange juice or else the mixture will split.
When the cake is baking in the oven if you feel that the top of the cake is turning dark in colour while the cake is still undercooked, then cover the cake with an aluminium foil as shown in the pic below and continue baking it.
Every oven is different, so adjust the baking time and temperature according to your oven.
