Orange Pound Cake - Orange Week #1

This is a very old recipe that I learnt from school's home science class.
Looking back.. it's been 20 years  since I last made this.

Memory of the wonderful smell emitting from the kitchen drawing the boys to peek into our  kitchen whenever they go to pee was funny, as the male students' toilet was not far from where we were.
When we got back to class, the boys even tried to snatch some of our cakes, but we all protected them well.

haha, I don't know why the cake looked this  way, with a funny looking side, almost like an Eunuch's hat

It was a proud moment for most of us girls. Happily we brought our cake home to show our parents.

It's quite sad that nowadays, most schools will try to skip cooking classes as much as possible and focus on the theory only.

Thank you Puan Hamsiah, my teacher.

The original recipe called for  zest from 1/2 orange. Back  in those days, we didn't use a zester or grater to get the zest. All we had was a paring knife. So, the cut was deeper and this way, we definitely had the zest more skin deep, still not bitter because we were careful to cut away the pith. But nowadays I think most will use a microplane, of if not, at least a  grater,so it won't be that much yield comparatively. That's why I used the zest of the whole orange.

This cake might be a tad sweeter, but that's how pound cakes go.. equal weight for all. You can reduce the sugar  if you like. But I just enjoy mine with a cup of orange tea, sugarless.

As usual, this type of cakes will be gone in a jiffy in my home. Everybody loves it.

cake cracked, hahaha!

Orange Pound Cake
Recipe: Puan Hamsiah (ACS 1993)

200gm butter (I used salted SCS)
200gm sugar
200gm plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs (Grade B or C)
Juice from 1 orange juice (50-60ml)
Zest from 1  orange (original was 1/2 orange)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven at 180C (fan off). Grease an 8inch  round pan and line the base with paper.
2. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition.
4. Add in vanilla and beat for a while.
5. Sift the flour with baking powder and put half the flour in. Beat on low speed until no lumps  are seen.
6. Add in orange juice and beat on low speed until combined and add in balance of flour and zest, and combine  until smooth.
7. Pour the batter into the pan and level it.
8. Bake  for 50-60 minutes, until golden, or until a skewer comes out clean.

*If the oven fan cannot be switched off, then go with 160C.

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