Orange and lemon cake

I was going through the huge pile of recipe print outs I have at home and was stunned by the amount of paper there. It made me feel really guilty. So I chose some of those recipes to make on the weekend. And will try to cut the pile down a bit before adding more paper to it.

I picked 2 savory recipes and 2 sweet. To kick things off in a great way, I baked this out of this world cake, which I got it from an equally out of this world blog, Ivonne’s.

Most of you know I’ll pick citrus over any other flavor. Yes, even over chocolate. That’s why choosing this cake was not a difficult task. It had been there for over a year – you read it right, Ivonne posted it on January, 2007. I don’t know why it took me so long to try it – talk about a waste of time.

The cake rose beautifully and smelled so heavenly that I couldn’t wait for it to cool completely. I never thought a burned tongue would make me so glad. :)

Orange and lemon cake

3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
¾ cup (180ml) milk (preferably whole)
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF; butter and flour a round 25cm (10-in) cake pan or springform pan.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Once sifted, add the orange and lemon zests and mix well. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using the paddle attachment on medium speed, combine the butter and sugar and mix for 2 to 3 minutes until the butter is light in color and appears fluffy.
Combine the lemon juice, orange juice and milk and stir.
Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, on medium speed, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Begin adding the dry ingredients, in three additions, and then alternating with the milk/juice mixture. You should begin with the dry ingredients and end with the dry ingredients.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Check the cake after 50 minutes by inserting a toothpick or cake tester into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, continue baking the cake. In my oven the cake took an hour so the baking time may vary based on your oven.
Once done, remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, unmold the cake and dust with icing sugar before serving.