Sunday, March 09, 2008

A Cake for A Potluck with Paella

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As I mentioned last night, Dad was making paella for the potluck at our house. Mom contributed with tuna empanadas, and I was in charge of dessert. While the main course was a mish-mash of paella, kuku-ye lubiya (a Persian-style frittata with green beans), breaded shrimp with veggies, salad, and two different mast-e khiar (cucumber yogurt). I focused my dessert though to follow through with a theme started by the paella.
I have a recipe for a bizcocho de naranja in a magazine I picked up in Barcelona last year, but I used a different one that I made before and had notes on it so I knew that it would turn out tasty. I didn't want to risk a bad cake without time to try to save it.
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Last time I used orange juice from a bottle since we already had it in the house, and this time I freshly squeezed it. Also, instead of following the recipe, I used Brown Cow cream top yogurt to make the cake, and since it was a new container and I didn't stir it up, most of the yogurt used was the cream top, which probably contributed to some of the richness, but the original recipe called for low-fat yogurt. I also probably need to find a better garnish because raspberries are not super tasty (and outrageously priced) this time of year. It just looks so boring without it, but tastes fine.

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Bizcocho de Naranja (orange yogurt cake)
adapted from Cooking Light, July 2005
Serves 12 (or so)

1 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
a large pinch crushed saffron threads
2 cups (9 1/2 ounces; 275 g) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/4 cup plain yogurt
6 tablespoons good-quality olive oil

3 Tablespoons orange marmalade
1 Tablespoon Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan with at least 1 1/2 inch sides.

Bring juice to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in saffron. Let stand 10 minutes, or while you are doing other steps.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl (or bowl of a mixer), beat sugar, egg, and egg white at medium speed until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add yogurt, beating well. Gradually add oil and the juice mixture, beating until well blended. Add half of flour mixture; beat just until blended. Add remaining flour and beat until just blended.

Spoon batter into prepared 9-inch cake pan. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a wodden pic inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove and cool completely on wire rack.

Place cake on serving platter. Combine marmalade and liqueur in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer stirring constantly. Remove from heat and spread mixture evenly over top of the cake, allowing to drip over sides. (If you like lots of glaze or don't like the look of the chunks, you can either double or strain it because this doesn't make a whole lot of glaze, its a very thin layer.)

2 comments:

Patricia Scarpin said...

I love baking with yogurt - everything gets so moist and delicious. And if there's orange, too, I'm sold!

Mar said...

And this cake is good. It's rare that I make something twice.