Orange-Walnut Cake

A simple yet scrumptious orange-scented cake made very easily in a food processor. Delicious plain or with coffee.

I hate this time of the year! Rain…cold….shorter days…so depressing. Adding to the misery is the produce section, no fruits whatsoever. All I see is citrus (but gorgeous ones though), apples and pears. I certainly spot berries but the inner foodie in me just doesn’t incline to buying berries in the mid of dead winter. I’ll wait for spring and go local. So, I stocked my basket with apples and oranges, dropped off an overdue book at the library and drove back home only to realize I had navel oranges, clementines and cuties. Really? what was I even thinking?? Lol 🙂 Anyways, we love to get our daily dose of vitamin-c, but it gets monotonous in a short while. Long story short, birth of my orange-walnut cake.

I came up this recipe about 3 weeks ago. First try- I sliced the cake while it was warm to make sure it came out right. Three of us polished off the entire cake even before it got a chance to cool completely. It was SOOOOOOOO GOOD! Hub-hub was not thrilled to find out that we didn’t save a slice for him:) So, I made another one next day, just so that he could taste it. The cake was finished in about 3 hours after oven time. I baked this cake probably 11 times in just 2 1/2 weeks and it never managed to make it to the second day. I did manage to share with friends and Sophia’s school and all of them just went crazy for it. I already have folks waiting for this recipe.

So, what is so special about this cake, you might wonder. It’s incredibly soft and tender, brimming with orange goodness, just the right amount of sweetness and SOOOOOOO YUM! All you need is your food processor to make this cake. NO stand mixer or hand blender required. And the ingredients, no complicated measurements-

1/2 cup walnuts/ butter/ sugar/ orange juice ;

1/2 teaspoon baking powder / baking soda / salt ;

2 eggs / oranges ;

1 cup flour ;

So simple right? The process is simple as well –

• grind all dry ingredients in the food processor and transfer to a bowl

• into same processor, process zest, butter and sugar

• add eggs, process

• add half flour mixture, process

• add orange juice, process

• add remaining flour, process

• pour into a pan, bake and gobble it up

All dry ingredients into the food processor…..

process until finely ground……

transfer into a bowl and then add butter, sugar and zest……

process until creamy…add eggs… process…..

process flour and orange juice….

and bake….

So, if you own a food processor (I used my trusty CUISINART) then please make this cake. Your family, friends, neighbors, tastebuds will thank you! This will become your go-to-cake recipe.

Notes-

-you will 2 medium oranges for the recipe – zest of 1 1/2 oranges(only the outer orange part) yields about a tablespoon (don’t bother measuring) / cut the zested oranges in half and juice (measure 1/2 cup for the recipe)

-if you have the time then leave the eggs out at room temperature at least 30 minutes or up to a day, if you didn’t then just go ahead with the recipe.

-you can use the pan that you have on hand and obviously a 8-inch cake will be taller.

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Orange-Walnut Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest (only the outer orange skin and not the white part)

2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature

1/2 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine flour, walnuts, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Process for about one and half minutes, until finely ground. Transfer mixture to a bowl and keep aside.

Into the same processor, add butter, sugar and orange zest. Process for about 45 seconds. Add both eggs and process for few seconds until smooth (scrape the sides of the processor to mix in any butter sticking to the sides). Add half the ground flour mixture, process for 10 seconds, then orange juice, process for 10 seconds and then finish off with remaining flour mixture and process for additional 10 seconds, until combined.

Transfer batter into the prepared pan, spread evenly and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 33 minutes (if using 8-inch pan) and 30 minutes (if using 9-inch pan) or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes clean.

Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely or eat warm (its unbelievably good when eaten warm).

Makes one 8-inch or 9-inch cake.