I used to love the orange cakes that my grandmother Dina used to make. Since she can't exactly be reached anymore and her vast assortment of recipes is unorganized and in the hands of two or three different people, I had to try to recreate her recipe.
Actually, that was the ambitious goal, originally. Later on, I settled for just making something decent. I took the one cake recipe of hers that I have, "Bolo 3", one that that calls for 3 eggs, 3 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 2 sticks butter, and tweaked it a little. I wanted something lighter, less dense, and that would have some resemblance of the taste of Madeleines. This is the result and it turned out to be great, if you can pardon the lack of humility here.
Ingredients
- 1 stick softened butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, separated
- 2 tbsps finely chopped orange zest
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 tbsps baking powder
Cream the butter and the sugar, then start incorporating the egg yolks one at a time. Beat until the mixture has a very light yellow color. Add the flour half a cup at a time, alternating with a quarter cup of milk (save a half cup milk for later). Add the vanilla and the orange rind; beat until well incorporated. Beat the egg whites to hard peaks and set aside. Mix the reserved half cup milk and the baking powder softly, until it foams. Fold the egg whites and the baking powder mix into the batter, taking care to deflate the volume as little as possible.
Pour the batter into a buttered and floured bundt pan and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. At the end of this time, check for doneness by inserting a toothpick, which should come out clean.
Ingredients for syrup
- half to one cup of orange juice
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- one shot of grappa or rum
Warm up the orange juice slightly just until you can easily dissolve all the sugar. Mix in the liquor and drizzle over the cake after pricking it all over with a fork or toothpick.
