BLENDER ORANGE CAKE

I started this blog thirteen years ago (!) with the sole purpose of documenting and sharing recipes that I was excited about. Keeping that still at the forefront, it evolved along the way into cooking for busy days and simplifying recipes. Days are busy and as people can’t stop repeating, ‘time is of the essence’.

So here’s the thing. If I’ve strung you along here for a while, you’ll know that I don’t bake a lot. I find all the measuring, levelling, and sieving all too fiddly and stressful. Which is why something like a blender cake is right up my alley. You still measure out the ingredients (cups are fine, no kitchen scales required). And all of it goes in a blender. Whazz it up and that’s your batter done.

Orange zest has all the flavour, right? Now imagine the amplified flavour from blending a whole orange. But I was skeptical. While that does sound like an ingenious way of getting a concentrated dose of all that incredible flavour, don’t you also get bitterness? I assure you, you do not.

Use one of those oranges that you don’t peel (like a Valencia). Slice it open just to remove the seeds and pop them into a blender jar. Blend to a smooth purée. At this point, it takes me a good two minutes to get on with the recipe, because there’s no way you’re not sticking your nose in the jar to inhale the citrusy waft. 

Back to business: add the eggs, sugar, salt, and baking powder to the oranges. Blend again until emulsified. Add the flour in the end and at this point — and I cannot stress this enough — only pulse the flour for a few seconds. Just until it becomes a cohesive batter. You want to be extremely conservative with the pulsing here. If you overwork your flour, you’ll end up with a dense, gummy loaf. For the heavy-handed ones out there, I would even recommend adding the flour to a bowl and mixing it by hand. One small step for you. One giant leap for cake. Yes, that’s a moon landing reference. Thirteen years in, and I’m still stringing you along.