Vegan orange cupcakes

I haven't been baking much these last few months, and though I kept promising myself I would bake a cake for various occasions, they came and went without anything going into the oven. New Year's Eve was my last chance to redeem myself, and even though I could think of a dozen excuses not to, I weighted out the ingredients, and in no time at all had myself a lovely batch of cup cakes. I hope the next lot isn't this late in coming!

1 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup powdered sugar

¼ cup olive oil

½ tsp orange zest
1 tbsp custard powder or corn flour

Method: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Sieve flour, with corn flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside.
Mix the oil and sugar, and beat well till well blended and creamy.
Add orange juice to the sugar and oil mixture, and mix well.
Add the sieved flour mixture and orange zest and mix well ensuring there are no lumps in the batter.
Pour into a greased cake tin, or cupcake liners, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes (15 minutes for cup cake, 20-25 for a regular cake), till a toothpick inserted into that batter comes out clean.
Serve hot or cold.

Chicken with citrus glaze

I was looking for recipes using chicken breasts when I came across this one. Though it was nothing like what I was looking for, the medley of flavours looked interesting, and I decided to try it out. I am glad I did, because it was lick smackingly good. Next time, I am making it with smaller slices of chicken, and serving it with fried rice.

500 gms chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp honey
Juice of 1 orange*
Juice of 1 lemon/ 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and chilli flakes to taste
2 tsp canola oil

Method:
Combine orange juice, lemon juice, honey, galic cloves, salt and chilli flakes in a large shallow dish. Add chicken breasts, cover and place in the refrigerator for one hour.
After the chicken has marinated, remove from the fridge. Heat the oil, and once hot, add the chicken. Cook the chicken for about 10 minutes per side till cooked well.
Meanwhile, simmer the marinade in a pan till it reduces to a thick consistency. At this stage, I added some orange food colouring, but it is not necessary.
Arrage the cooked chicken breasts on a plate, pour the glaze over the chicken, and serve.

*- I used one tetrapack of orange juice

Celebrations....

After three weeks of virtually living in the office. Two weekends, where we got to meet him for less than a couple of hours. The day after my older one commented that he'd not even seen his father since Wednesday. After all that, the deal the hubby was working on, finally came through. And it was time for celebrations.

An eggless chocolate-orange cake, with Nutella icing, and a bunting festooned between two ice cream sticks. Happy times!

Orange infused chocolate cake

I had measured most of the stuff for a regular chocolate cake, when the Younger One asked me if I could make an orange-chocolate cake instead. Had he asked a little earlier, I had a recipe that I could have used, but since most of the preparatory work had been done, I just winged it.
The combination of orange and chocolate is lovely, and next time I bake, I am making the "real" ones.

100 gms maida
1 tsp baking powder
100 gms sugar
2 eggs
100 gms butter
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
juice of 1 orange
4 tsp icing sugar

Line a cake tin with butter paper, and keep aside.
Sift together the maida, baking powder and cocoa three or four times till well aerated and keep aside.
Whisk 2 eggs till frothy and keep aside.
In a mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar taking care that you always stir the spoon in the same direction. Do it till the two are well mixed and creamy.
Add a bit of the flour and some beaten egg to the mixture, and mix till creamy. Keep doing it till all the flour and eggs are mixed. Mix the batter a bit more- the more you mix, the fluffier your cake will be.
Pour the batter in the tin, taking care to push the batter towards the ourside (to prevent doming and cracking)
Preheat the over to 200 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, or till a knitting needle pushed into the batter comes out clean.
Meanwhile, mix the orange juice and icing sugar together in a bowl. Carefully pour the orange juice mixture over the warm cakes and set aside to cool completely.
I was a little skeptical about the combination, but it was quite amazing.

Added a small bit of orange peel in the tea while brewing it, which helped me savour the cake even more.

Orange cheesecake

One never really knows what to do on our Anniversary. Since it is a day before the younger one's birthday, it doesn't really make sense to get a cake, and yet it seems almost sacrilegious to let an opportunity to indulge the sweet tooth pass by. Last year, I made gajar halwa. This year, I whipped up an orange cheesecake.
Unfortunately, I didn't incorporate the gelatin properly the first time round, so had to do it again, which meant I didn't have time to make the top layer. Better luck next time, I guess.

6 Marie biscuits
1 tbsp butter
200gms beaten fresh cream 

100gms beaten hung curds 

2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 1/2 tsp geletin 

1 orange, with the juicy part taken out

few drops orange essence

orange food colouring (very, very little)

Method
Crush the Marie biscuits into a fine powder (use a rolling pin), add the butter, and mix well. Spread at the bottom of the serving dish (line it with oil first), pat till it is smooth, and keep in the fridge for about 20 minutes to give it time to set.
Meanwhile, mix the cream and the hung curds well, with 2 tbsp sugar, orange essence and orange food colouring.
Dissolve geletin in 1 tbsp warm water, and mix it with the cream. Add a few pieces of peeled oranges (not too many, because we don't want it to release water- just enough for a bit of texture), pour it onto the base, and put it in the fridge to set for about an hour.
Serve garnished with the rest of the orange.

Strawberry-orange juice

It's different!

Infuse 1 inch piece of ginger (cut into small pieces) and 2 cloves in a glass of orange juice for about 1 hour.
Remove ginger and cloves, and blend orange juice with 6 strawberries till smooth.
Makes almost 1 1/2 glasses of juice, so adjust proportions according to how much you need.

If you want it sweet, you'll have to add extra sugar (the sugar from the orange juice was enough for me).

Spiced Apple Salad

This is a perfect post-workout snack, specially when you are warding off a cold.

1 apple
2 tbsp unsweetened orange juice
an inch piece ginger
5-6 whole peppers
5-6 cloves
rock salt to taste
 
Crush the ginger. Mix the ginger, and the spices with the orange juice.

Cut apples into small pieces, marinate overnight with the spiced orange juice.
Remove the peppercorns and cloves before eating.