Middle Eastern Orange Cake.

I just came back from my holiday/educational/spiritual trip to Jerusalem, Mecca and Madinah where i performed my Umrah (minor pilgrimage), and i really had a wonderful time at these sacred places!

Jerusalem is a beautiful holy city with magnificient views that will take your breath away. Places of worships - Churches, Mosques, Synagogues - are built near to each other in the city.. So why can't we just live together in harmony without any disputes already??!! And I especially love the cold weather..! A good place to escape from the hot and humid weather here in Singapore.

And i feel truly blessed to be given the opportunity to go through a round of spiritual journey in the two holy cities of Mecca and Madinah. The weather was hot (50 degrees!) and i fell sick a number of times, but nevertheless it was such a great religious and spiritual experience and i would love to step my foot there again. If God wills. Insyaallah. =)

I will post some photos of the trip at the end of this post.

I declare that i've fallen in love with the middle east!! <3

Now let's talk about the subject that we love so much.

Yep. Sweet food. Cake! 

I miss my oven while i was away. No kidding.

This Middle Eastern Orange Cake is very easy to make and totally gluten-free, as it is made of almond flour instead of the normal flour. The only downside? You have to boil the oranges for two hours. I boiled the oranges for only an hour and it's still fine.

You can conclude from here that i have the patience of a saint. Not.

The cake may look totally burnt on the outside after being baked in the oven for an hour, , but fret not!! Once you pierce a fork into the cake, you'll find how delicate and moist the crumb is. And it's all thanks to the almond flour! And the citrusy taste is not too overwhelming. Just perfect. This cake is really nice to eat, and most will enjoy it!

Rating: 7/10

Recipe

(Adapted from Not Quite Nigella, who adapted it from Claudia Roden)

2 large oranges, washed (Or 3 medium ones)

6 eggs, beaten

250 g. ground almonds/almond meal/almond flour
250 g. sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Icing sugar to dust if desired

Method

Boil whole, unpeeled oranges, barely covered with water, in a covered saucepan for 2 hours (you can do this step a day or so ahead of time and keep the boiled oranges, once cooled, in the fridge). Discard water, allow to cool, then cut open, remove the pips (seeds and the whites) and chop roughly or pull apart into smaller pieces with fingers.

Preheat oven to 190ºC/170ºc fan forced and line the base and sides of a 24cm springform tin with baking paper.

Blend oranges and remaining ingredients thoroughly in a food processor. Pour batter into prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour. If cake is still very wet, cook a little longer. Cool in tin before gently removing. Dust with icing sugar and zest and prepare to swoon…

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Now let me entertain you with the photos of the trip:

Luxury houses along the hills at Jerusalem.

One of the Churches in Jerusalem.

The exterior of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The magnificent Dome of Rock!

The Dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Wailing Wall.

I love the serenity of Jerusalem!

The street at Jerusalem.

We visited the Dead Sea too. A very beautiful sea!!

Wish i could float on the dead sea!

Choco-Chip Jaffa Muffins & A New Blogger Design!

OMG. OMG. OMG.

A new blogger design. LIKE, FINALLY.

Do you know how much i lurveeeee my new blogger design??

I can't stop staring at it like a weirdo!

It's all thanks to Jessica @ The Frilly Coconut! She's just so talented!

I wish i could give her all the muffins above as a token of appreciation. :D

If you wanna get a new pretty blogger/wordpress/twitter design at an affordable price, i HIGHLY RECOMMEND her service!!

***

Okay, back to the muffins.

These muffins turned out to be quite crusty on the outside (not sure whether it's supposed to be crusty originally. If not, YIKES!), and light and moist on the inside. They're surprisingly not too sweet either, which is good news for the diabetics, and bad news for people with sweet-tooth (i.e. yours truly). Boo.

I was also quite disappointed that the orange flavour wasn't strong enough. Fortunately the chocolate chips made the muffins taste a whole lot better. I wish i'd put the whole bag of choco-chips into the batter. Tsk.

The next time i make this, I'm gonna pour some orange juice into the batter. And add a little bit more sugar.

What i really love about buttermilk is that it can make your cake to be really moist!

Grating the orange zest was the best part of the process. The sweet and sour citric scent that filled the kitchen was the best natural air-freshener of all!

The batter must be lumpy. Or else you're fired.

The domes of the muffins were slightly higher than the ones shown in the recipe book. Yours truly over-filled the muffin pan holes.

My ratings: 5.5/10

However, all my family members commented that the muffins were scrumptious and that i should bake these more often. Their ratings are: 7/10

Until now i'm still wondering whether i've raised a very fussy tongue. Hmm.

Recipe

(Taken From The Australian Women's Weekly Easy Baking Book)

2 1/2 Cups (375g) Self-raising flour
100g Cold butter, chopped finely
1 Cup (220g) Caster Sugar
1 1/4 Cups (310ml) Buttermilk
1 Egg
3/4 Cup (135g) Dark Choc Bits
2 Teaspoons finely grated orange zest

Method:

Preheat oven to 200c/180c fan-forced. Grease 12-hole (1/3 cup/80ml) muffin pan.

Sift flour into large bowl; rub in butter. Stir in sugar, buttermilk and egg. Do not overmix; mixture should be lumpy. Stir in Choc Bits and zest.

Divide mixture into pan holes; bake about 20 minutes. Stand muffins in pan 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

The Journey of the Confectionery Queen Begins...

HAH. Fancy calling myself a Confectionery Queen, when:

a) I'm not a confection-making extraordinaire,
b) Most of the time i fail at following recipes correctly,
c) I don't look like a confectionery goddess, like Nigella Lawson or... someone goddessy or queeny-like?

Well. When it comes to confections/desserts, I'm always the first one in line. My obsession for it makes others shake their heads, tsk-tsking everytime. Hence, the label Confectionery Queen. Hehhhh.

So. This is my first post for this blog. Yaay.

And today happens to be my Barf-day. Double Yaay.

Now i have two things to celebrate on the 13th of September every year. Triple Yaay.

Why i call it barfday and not birthday?

Because the thought of having to grow older but not wiser kinda makes me wanna barf.
Right now.

To cheer things up, i've made myself a birthday cake. No, not your typical birthday cake.

It's Yogurt Marmalade Cake from The Pioneer Woman!
Oh how i really love her. But not in a sick-ly way. She's such an inspiration!

Hugeass photo of it.

From the photo above, you can see that:

a) I need to buy pretty plates and more props. Yes, i'll do that. Don't worry.

b) My photography skill sucks like no other. Will do something about it too.

c) My cake didn't rise beautifully as Pioneer Woman's. Boo.

But the cake tasted good! I've always love zesty cake. And it's not too sweet either. 

I'm not a big fan of the orange glaze though. Quite sour to my liking. I will experiment it with different types of glaze in the future.

Or i would just pour chocolate syrup all over and stuff my face in it.

Yes. That's it.

Another note: It's best serve warm.

My Rating: 6/10

(Click here for the recipe)

***

This blog is still under construction actually. I'm gonna get a new blog design real soon, and the one that's gonna design it is none other than the talented Jessica from The Frilly Coconut. I'm so glad that i stumbled upon her website while doing some food blog-hopping. Look at her portfolio and see why she's so talented. I'm really very excited and can't wait to see mine!

Okay, that's it for now. Have a good day people!