Orange Cupcakes & Vanilla Sponge Cake

In spite of my trying real hard, I have not been able to post as frequently as I'd like to.

The days stay busy, with a thousand chores
awaiting.
And I need more time than usual to finish a job now.

In the midst of all this I cook.
But of late cooking has mostly been on the spur.
Decide, prepare, cut/chop, cook, serve.
With almost no time to arrange a plate and click snaps.

But it does nag at the back of my mind when I prepare something good enough to share
with you all.
So no matter how quick I have to be, I try to manage a few clicks.

I've been craving for some good old fashioned Vanilla cake for a while now.
With eggs.
So baked one last weekend.


With winter gone and the weather turning dry and hot,
it is the evenings that are so endearing now.
A heavy breeze blows that takes me back to summery evenings back home.
Our garden had a grapefruit tree.
And the only thing I loved about it was the flowers.
Or rather their smell.

Citrusy, fragrant and so so sweet.
The evening air would be heavy with a mix of their smell and the smell of wet earth from the
just watered garden.
The elders would be sitting down to a cup of lemon tea
accompanied with something baked ...
either cakes or bakery biscuits.

I baked this cake just around evening, heart heavy with memories.

Just as I set about pouring the batter into the baking bowl,
I spied some beautiful oranges sitting on the table.
Immediately kept some batter aside
and added some orange zest to it.
Baked some cupcakes out of that batter.
Ok ... not some, exactly 5 cupcakes.


The zest gave such a wonderfully warm golden and light sunshine colour
to the cupcakes that
it almost hurt to eat them.
And the aroma of orange coming out of a warm cake is just so heady!

I threw in some choco chips that promptly sank to the bottom.
But it was fun to break open a cupcake and discover the chips in them.

The cake was perfect.
Brown and slightly crusty top.
Very soft and fluffy inside.
Melt in the mouth perfect sweetness.
Am so happy with it that I'm going to write the recipe here.
If not for anybody else,
then for my own self ... lest I forget.

By the time the cupcakes came out, we had finished half of the sponge cake ...
warm and just out of the oven.
So just the other half for a click.


Need :

1 cup maida / refined or all purpose flour
2 eggs
a little milk ( I use it only to make the batter thin )
vanilla essence - 3 big drops
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of baking soda
a little less than 1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cooking oil

Around 1 tbsp orange zest to be added for the cupcakes.


How I made them :

Set oven to 160 degrees C to pre heat.

Grind the sugar into a powder.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and oil in a bowl.

Add the sugar and mix well.

Beat the eggs for a while and mix in.

Add milk ( I needed just about a quarter cup or less ).

Add the vanilla essence.

Stir well till there are no lumps in the batter.

The batter should be of easily flowing yet slightly heavy consistency.

Brush a baking bowl with butter or cooking oil.

Dust it with some maida / apf.

Pour in the batter and bake at 160 degrees for around 15 minutes.

Switch off oven. Do not take the cake out immediately.

After around 10 mins remove and cool.


The Cupcakes

Just add the orange zest to the above batter.

If you want add some choco chips too.

Oil a muffin tray, pour in the batter and bake at 150 degrees for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool and serve.


All golden in colour,
soft as sponge, sweet, with a bite of chocolate, these cupcakes were beautiful!

We enjoyed them with some light and flavourful
Darjeeling leaf tea.

And I kept smelling my fingers where the wonderful fragrance of
the orange zest lingered ...
long after every crumb was gone. :-)

Other Cakes with eggs on Kichu Khon

Rum Cake with Fruit & Nuts
Coffee Cake
( Yep ... just two!! All others are eggless! )