Orange Sponge Cake

I started my food blog fueled purely by watching endless episodes of Masterchef Australia. While I don't eat meat, I loved the recipes the contestants cooked and plated up. The innumerable combinations of ingredients, the mystery boxes, the various techniques and the plating itself was something I dreamt of doing someday. While I may never go on to be there, Indulgent Detours became a creative medium for me to channel this dream of mine and that's how this blog began. 

And one of the important lessons I learnt from Masterchef and from all those amazing bloggers out there on Instagram, was to base recipes on the fresh seasonal produce available. They bring a certain vibrancy to the food and make for a healthier choice. So when I saw the market filled with carts of fresh oranges, I wanted to make a memorable dish with it. So apart from munching on it by the dozen and drinking freshly juiced oranges with basil post my workouts, I made this egg-less Orange sponge cake, partly as a birthday cake for a friend and partly to experiment. While I have made orange/lemon based cakes/desserts earlier, most have resulted in a disaster. This one though, was foolproof with no possibility of the recipe going wrong, even when attempted by amateurs like me. 

While the cake barely reached my friend as it passed many hands before it got delivered to her, all the hands managed to get a bite of it and seemed to like it. 

Orange Sponge Cake (Egg-less)

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

Half tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp baking soda

1 cup oil

Half tsp orange zest

a pinch of salt

1 cup powdered sugar

1.5 cup orange juice

Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Take half cup of sugar, add the oil and mix till incorporated. add the orange zest, stir and then add to the flour mixture. stir till its fully incorporated. bake in a pre heated oven at 180℃ for about 20 min. keep a close watch on the cake so that you can remove it when it turns golden brown. The usual test of a toothpick/fork coming out clean is the time when its baked. 

While the cake is baking, take a small pan and add the remaining sugar and orange juice into it. stir on low flame for about 8-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken and will become like a thin syrup. Remove from flame and let it cool.

Once the cake is baked and left to cool for about 5-7 min ( it still needs to be warm), take a toothpick and poke deep holes across the entire surface of the take in a orderly manner ( I baked a square cake so made a 5 by 5 grid holes). Now pour the warm orange syrup all over the cake and across the sides as well. Let the cake soak up the orange syrup for about 10 -15 min. Then sprinkle castor sugar all over the cake with a sieve and serve warm. 

This can also be served with vanilla ice cream and leftover orange syrup.