Buttery Orange Cake

Buttery Orange Cake 

While I was waiting for the scones to cook, I was flipping through the trusty Women's Weekly COOK book when I came across this Orange cake, and having some oranges in the fridge that needed to be eaten I decided to make this as well :) Ok so it didn't turn into such a lazy Sunday after all! 

SERVES: 12 

PREPARATION: 20 MINS 

COOK: 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES 

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind

1 1/2 cups (350g) caster sugar

4 eggs 

1 1/2 cups (225g) self raising flour

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour 

3/4 cup (180ml) orange juice

Glace Icing 

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon butter 

2 tablespoons orange juice

Method

Preheat oven to moderately slow (170C/150C fan forced) Grease deep 22cm round (my tin is 23cm/9 inch) pan; line base and side with baking paper, extending paper 5cm above edge of pan. 

Beat butter, rind and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined between additions. Fold in sifted flours and juice, in two batches. 

Pour mixture into pan; bake uncovered 1 hour 10 minutes. Stand in pan 10 minutes then turn onto wire rack; turn top side up to cool. 

Make glace icing 

Glace Icing Method

Place icing sugar in small heatproof bowl; stir in butter & juice. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water; stir until icing is of a spreadable consistency. Use Immediately. 

Place cake, top side up, on serving plate; spread cold cake with glace icing. 

My Notes

This is a dense & heavy & what I would call old fashioned sort of cake, I tend to prefer a moister cake but this is still very nice with a little bit of a sweet tang. 

Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Scones


SERVES: 16 
PREPARATION: 20 MINS 
COOK: 15 MINS 

Keeping with the theme of lying on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea this weekend, what better to go with the cuppa than a  batch of warm pumpkin scones with lashings of double cream and apricot jam :) I whipped out one of my tried and true cookbooks, there had to be a recipe for pumpkin scones in it? and hooray there was! Good on you trusty old Women's Weekly COOK :) 

Ingredients

40g butter

1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar

1 egg 

3/4 cup cooked mashed pumpkin

2 1/2 cups (375g) self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/3 cup (80ml) milk, approximately 

2 teaspoons milk, extra 

Method

Preheat oven to very hot (240C/220C fan forced). 

Beat Butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined (mixture will curdle at this stage, but that won't affect the finished scones). Transfer mixture to large bowl. Stir in Pumpkin, then sifted dry ingredients and enough milk to make a soft, sticky dough. 

Turn dough onto floured surface; knead quickly and lightly until just smooth. press dough out evenly to 2cm thickness; using cutter, cut out 5cm rounds. Place rounds in pans; brush with extra milk. Bake, uncovered, 15 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to cool. (I put them into a cane basket and wrap with a clean tea towel to cool) 

Tips

These are one of the great specialities of Australian country cooks, using the natural sweetness and moistness of pumpkin to create a wonderful homely treat. Enjoy them straight from the oven. The amount of milk you need to make a soft sticky dough depends entirely on the moisture content of the pumpkin. 




My Notes

The cookbook suggested that these be baked in 2 20cm round pans, I imagine they would have formed a flower like loaf. Pretty but I baked them separately on a tray to save washing up lol. 

I also found that I didn't have to add any milk, in fact I needed to add a little flour. 

next time I would also halve the amount of nutmeg to a 1/4 teaspoon, a bit rich for me. 

Oh and apparently when cutting the scone mixture you shouldn't twist the cutter!