Serious Orange Cake

Last week on Tuesday we made Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake. I got the recipe from ChubbyHubby, my favourite food blog (incidentally also the only food blog I read/have read).

Maybe about a couple of weeks back I had a sudden craving for orange cake. Probably because I read about it on ChubbyHubby. So I did what was the only thing to be done when one has a craving in this severely limited town; I pestered S to make it for me! Muahahahah! It's a good thing that she likes baking and trying out new foods, or else I'd be left to my own devices to satisfy my cravings and that would be disastrous.

Making the cake was simple enough. I pretended to help as much as I could; i.e. blending the oranges, using the electric hand mixer to mix the mixture, lazy stuff like that. The cake turned out BEAUTIFULLY! I don't know why, maybe we didn't have any expectations, but we were so surprised and delighted (read: squealing and jumping about) with the result. The recipe required a cooling period before the syrup could be poured onto the cake and after that the cake was to be allowed to cool completely before being taken out of the tin but we were so excited at the prospect of tasting it that we could barely wait the wait.

The cake, fresh from the oven, was warm and wonderfully soft, crumbly and delicate. The syrup had seeped through the cake making it so moist it was teetering on being mushy, but not quite! The flavour was subtle yet rich (a contradiction in terms?). You'd have to try it for yourself to see what I mean. It wasn't too sweet, had just a hint of bitterness (probably due to the Cointreau in the syrup) and the lightest orange flavour that made it just perfect! And the aroma! Absolutely heavenly! The combination of the flavour, texture and smell made for one of those 'heave a huge, melting sigh, relax completely and fall back onto the couch in a heap' moments.

[Note: Although the picture of the cake won't be very interesting, when I get it from S, I'll post it here anyway. Alternatively, go to ChubbyHubby and search for it. His pictures are all always gorgeous!]