It has been a while since we had a new spinning cake recipe here. Yesterday’s spinning cake was Orange Drizzle Cake – a recipe that I originally found at the Waitrose web site. Generally I make this as written, and in the form of cup cakes.
Ingredients
- 175g butter, softened
- 175g soft light brown sugar
- Grated zest and juice of 1½ oranges
- 125g sultanas
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1-2 tbsp whole milk
- 100g granulated sugar
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
- Butter 12 x 125ml mini loaf tins and line the sides with baking parchment, or line a deep 12-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
Method
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric handwhisk until pale and fluffy.
- Stir in the grated zest of 1 orange and the sultanas before
- adding the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift in the flour and gently fold in, adding enough milk to make the mixture drop off the end of a spoon when tapped.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into the tins, and level the tops with the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, mix together the remaining orange zest, the juice and granulated sugar and pour over the tops of the cakes.
- Allow to cool in the tins.
The cakes will keep for up to 1-2 days in an airtight container.
My notes
- Don’t stint on these, it is the buttery flavour that makes them so good.
- I include the rind of two whole oranges when making these as it seems nonsense not to use the fourth half
- These cakes are very good made with soft brown sugar but certainly do not suffer for substituting caster sugar.
- I baked in a “bar bake” tin that I really must measure up one day – it came from Lakeland. I dropped the temperature by ten degrees and cooked for about half an hour. I pricked the top all over with a wooden skewer before drizzling the topping. Cooled in the tin, it cut up into sixteen generous and very moist fingers.
Variations
- Ob: lemon to replace orange with the sultana version
- Replace sultanas with candied orange peel in the orange version
- Try chopped cystallized ginger with either orange or lemon
I am considering a lime version. Perhaps rind and juice of 1 lime plus 1 lemon. Sultanas should work OK with this but I am convinced there is something better waiting to be thought of. Diced (small) fresh coconut, maybe?
Please report back on your favourite variations, so that we can all try them!
Don’t knock it until you have tried it
I like to eat these with a little dollop of cream cheese – I usually use Philadelphia Light.