Flaxseed orange cake with hazelnuts

Happy new year 2011, everybody! My first post of the new year is an eggless cake, using flaxseed powder as a substitute for the egg in the original recipe - and goodness knows where I got that from. Anyway, it works! Flaxseed as a substitute for eggs really does work! There's no reason it SHOULDN'T, because this particular substitution has been recommended and tried by plenty of others. It's just that I needed to try it for myself before I could actually believe it. And I'm pretty sure I don't need to feel lonely in this respect, I'm sure I have plenty of company.

I'd dry roasted a lot of flaxseeds earlier, and it was a simple job to grind one tablespoon of the seeds to powder and mix it with water.

It's one thing to be told that 1 tbsp flaxseed powder + 3 tbsp water = one egg. It's quite another thing to realise that the flaxseed powder simply SUCKS up the water,

and when the mixture is added to cake batter, it makes the batter really really gooey. In fact, the batter felt so gooey that I wondered if the cake would turn out a disaster, but hooray for flaxseeds, it didn't!

If you look at the photos of the cake, you'll see that the hazelnuts are practically powdered. That was not the effect I was after. I wanted the nuts chopped, not ground to dust. Sadly, one moment's distraction while running the nuts in the grinder is all it takes to pulverise rather than chop - so take note.

In short, if you DO make this cake, be sure to chop the nuts (whichever nuts you may substitute) a bit chunky; they're best not pulverised.

Recipe for: Flaxseed orange cake with hazelnuts

Ingredients:

1/3 cup oil
pinch salt
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp flaxseed powder + 3 tbsp water
1-1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cream or yogurt
1/3 cup dried berries
3-4 tbsp milk (if required)
3 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau liqueur (or orange juice)
1/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°C.

2. Mix oil, salt, orange rind, Grand Marnier and sugar in a large bowl.

3. Beat in the flaxseed mixture along with the cream or yogurt.

4. Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add to wet mixture in three or four stages, stirring well in between,

then add the dried berries and mix them in well.

The batter will be quite sticky and gooey. Beat in some milk if the batter feels too thick.

5. Pour the batter into a 7" round or square pan which has been sprayed with Pam.

6. Spread the chopped nuts on the surface, pressing them in gently so that they are partly sunk in the batter.

7. Bake till the cake is done - about 45-50 minutes, although it's best to check from 30 minutes onwards, depending on your oven.

8. Cool the cooked cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Cut when cool.


RECIPE: FLAXSEED ORANGE CAKE WITH HAZELNUTS

Ingredients:

1/3 cup oil
pinch salt
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp flaxseed powder + 3 tbsp water
1-1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cream or yogurt
1/3 cup dried berries
3-4 tbsp milk (if required)
3 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau liqueur (or orange juice)
1/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°C.
2. Mix oil, salt, orange rind, Grand Marnier and sugar in a large bowl.
3. Beat in the flaxseed mixture along with the cream or yogurt.
4. Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add to wet mixture, then add the dried berries and mix them in well. The batter will be a bit sticky and gooey. Beat in some milk if the batter feels too thick.
5. Pour the batter into a 7" round or square pan which has been sprayed with Pam.
6. Spread the chopped nuts on the surface, pressing them in gently so that they are partly sunk in the batter.
7. Bake till the cake is done - about 45-50 minutes, although it's best to check from 30 minutes onwards, depending on your oven.
8. Cool the cooked cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Browned butter apple cake

I have baked a good number of cakes in the years since I started this blog, and a good few of them are based around fruits, fresh or dried. Apples, oranges and bananas feature a lot among those, simply because I usually have those fruits around the house. Bananas figure a lot because they tend to go overripe before we can eat them (they have to be slightly underripe for Pete, and perfectly ripe for me – which doesn’t leave a big window of opportunity for the poor bananas!) Some overripe bananas can be sliced into cereal but beyond that, they get turned into cakes. Oranges I use a lot of because I love their flavour in cakes. As for apples, again, those with blemishes caused by mishandling or old age find their way into baked goods.

The apples I used in this cake fell into the latter category – they were beginning to shrivel with age, and needed to be used. Conveniently enough, I came across an eggless apple cake recipe that incorporated flaxseed and was so completely decadent (all that butter...!) that I felt I just HAD to make it. Boy, it sure didn’t tell a lie, that recipe... the texture of the cake was excellent, and the taste – oh my!

The blogger from whom I got this recipe said in her blog that the cake was just as nice cold, but I have to say that it was okay cold, but when served hot with vanilla ice-cream, the cake was absolutely spectacular! I don’t use the word “spectacular” often, but this cake totally deserves the accolade. Especially as we ate it over 4-5 days, and it lost nothing in the way of taste when it was reheated in the microwave oven.

Let me say that this is not a cake to be made everyday, or every week, or once a month, or even once in two months... but when you DO make it, be sure to enjoy it down to the last crumb and don’t skimp on the quality of the ice-cream either.

PS. The cake would probably look better with sliced apples arranged prettily, but for some reason I had decided to chop up the apples, so that was that.

Recipe for: Browned butter apple cake



Ingredients:

For the brown butter:

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 medium apples, peeled and chopped into 1-cm cubes



1. Heat the butter in a medium pan over medium heat until melted and bubbly,



then add the brown sugar



and stir till the sugar caramelises and turns golden brown. Be careful not to burn it.



Stir in the cinnamon and pour the mixure into an 8" pan that's been sprayed with Pam. Spread the apples evenly over the caramelised sugar.



For the cake:

1-1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp flaxseed powder
2 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup yogurt

Method:

1. Sift together the salt, flour, nutmeg and baking soda into a medium bowl.

2. Cream the butter and sugar with the vanilla extract till fluffy and light.



3. Beat in the cornstarch/cornflour and the milk, mixing well.



4. Add the flour mixture and yogurt a third at a time and beat till smooth.



5. Add the flaxseed powder and beat again. If the batter is very thick, beat in a bit more milk, tbsp by tbsp, until the batter is thick but of dropping consistency.

6. Spoon the batter evenly over the apples in the pan.



7. Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes at 180C or till a cake tester comes out dry.



8. While the cake is still hot, run a thin knife around the edges and place a plate over the cake, then carefully turn it upside down.





Serve the cake warm with best quality vanilla ice cream. The cake stays good for 3-4 days in a cool environment.