Monday, October 31, 2011

Newborn Insanity.


The other day, Georgie's Grandpa (my dad) came to visit.

He lives just outside of Melbourne but came to Sydney to ride on a steam train for the weekend around country NSW (too long a story to explain properly) and will be back next week for a longer visit with the family.

In my delirious, slightly sleep deprived state (I say slightly because Georgie surprisingly loves sleeping at night so far and won't even wake for a feed) I decided to bake a cake for his visit. And a quiche, but that's a different story.

My dad is a big fan of cake. But even in my haziness I knew it had to be an easy cake. No layers, no creaming, no whisking. Big bang for buck. I might be tired but I'm not completely dumb. I know my limitations in the current marketplace.

How much easier does it get than throwing all the ingredients into the kitchen whizz, pouring the batter into the loaf pan and baking? Not much, I can tell you... I timed it and it took precisely 8 minutes from starting to putting the tin in the oven. Awesome.

The cake was absolutely delicious as well as being ridiculously easy. My dad loved it too and so did Mr K. I highly recommend you try it out - you won't be disappointed.

Orange drizzle cake

Adapted from Taste.com.au

1 large thin-skinned orange, preferably seedless Valencia (I used 1 ½ medium oranges)
250g unsalted butter, melted
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
2 cups (440g) caster sugar
4 eggs

Icing

2 tbs (40g) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (225g) icing mixture, sifted
Juice of 1/2 orange
Squeeze of lemon juice
Zest of one orange, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 11cm x 24cm loaf pan.

Chop orange (including skin) into small pieces. Discard any seeds. Process in a food processor until finely chopped. Add butter, flour, caster sugar and eggs, then process until mixture is light and smooth. Pour into pan. Bake for 40 minutes until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

Meanwhile, for the icing, melt butter and add to icing sugar, orange zest and orange and lemon juices. Stir until you have a soft icing. Cool slightly, then spread over cake, allowing it to drip down the sides.

Kitty xx

4 comments:

Maxabella said...

Look at you baking a cake with a newborn! Amaaazing. I'm sure the cake was good too! x

TheStylishShoeGirl said...

God that cake looks good.....I made a lemon drizzle cake from Taste not that long ago and it was amazing.....

Semi Expat said...

Oh this looks perfect for me to attempt and I don't have the excuse of a newborn!! May she continue sleeping well at night for you! X

Anonymous said...

You're such a supermum! Not only baking cake but a quiche too! :O hats off to you Miss Kitty!