It was love at first bite for me. We paid a visit to Theobroma in Colaba on a cloudy day, weighed down with several shopping bags. I dug hungrily into a slice of orange cake and with the first Ummmm itself was transported to another world. I don’t remember what made me go for it instead of the colourful rainbow pastries and chocolate cakes that I’m generally partial to. But yes, I was admittedly disheartened that I could possibly never bake anything so yummy.

A foodie with a taste for perfection has endless patience and resources though. I’m not much of a baker but have tried my hand at different types of cakes like banana, carrot, mango, etc. An orange cake seemed like a challenge and, for the sake of my taste buds, I took it head-on. Thankfully, it turned out great at the first attempt itself. I’m sharing with you all this super tasty and easy recipe so you can try it too. I’ve replaced all purpose flour and sugar with wheat flour and jaggery to make it healthy.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Sugar/jaggery powder – ½ cup

Orange juice (fresh or canned) – 1 cup

Oil/ghee – ¼ cup

Corn starch – 1 tbsp

Baking powder – ½ tbsp

Baking soda – ½ tbsp

Orange zest – 1 tbsp

Orange essence – 1 tsp

For serving:

Orange juice – 1/4 cup

Procedure:

1. Sieve wheat flour, corn starch, baking powder and baking soda together and keep them aside.

2. Take jaggery and oil/ghee in another bowl and beat them together till they turn frothy. You can use an electric beater or do it manually.

3. Once done, add orange juice, orange zest and orange essence to the mixture and mix them.

4. Add the dry ingredients to this wet mixture slowly and mix them all well together. Make sure that the batter has no lumps.

5. Grease a 7*4 inch cake tin and dust it with dry flour. Pour the batter in it and tap it to release excess air bubbles.

6. Preheat an oven at 180 degrees C. Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

7. Make holes in the orange cake at random points and pour ¼ cup of orange juice on it. Let it soak in.

8. You can serve this cake warm or cool. It tastes great with tea or coffee or even on its own.

* You can use ghee instead of oil or a combination of both.

* If you’re using canned orange juice then use 3/4 cup of sugar in the recipe.

You can have fun baking this cake with your kids and make it a fun vacation activity. A Jr squeezed fresh orange juice while Angel excitedly used measuring spoons and handed me the exact quantities as required. My kitchen looked like it was hit by a tornado by the time we were done. I was in a food coma to be bothered by it though. Surely a happy experience for an amateur baker like me.

A slice of this orange slice might be loaded with calories but is definitely a better dessert option on a cheat day. Do give a try!

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