Orange Cornmeal Cake

Since the blizzard swamped over East Coast and gifted Johns Hopkins University with now a week long snow break of the institution history (that even made Hitler upset) I have been sick, towered by heaps of workload, physically dried up like a piece of gum on the asphalt from no sleep. Yet, these are multiple factors that somehow worked as a blessing in disguise to help me stay with my own promise of "going cold turkey baking." I miss baking. Few days ago I threw out three dried up oranges that I never get a chance to eat, and they were in passing condition to be made into something delicious as orangettes. Without looking back I trashed them. So here is a recipe for my bitterness on myself. I present you Orange Cornmeal Cake.

It's a something that I have developed as a habit of making for any gathering occasions. I accidentally bought cornmeal instead of cornstarch one day, and regretted myself for making such scatterbrained mistake until I determined to use it all up by fishing out good recipes. Orange Cornmeal Cake is dorm-friendly food. Easy dish work, no fancy grocery market in need, perfect to bake in toaster oven. This is from Simply Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. Check below if you are unfamiliar or skeptical to ingredients and terminology.

Orange Cornmeal Cake

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for the topping
* 1/2 cup orange juice (or dry white wine)
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* Zest of 1 large orange

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan or pan that fits into your toaster oven with oil (can use butter or spray for this too); line the bottom of the pan with wax paper or parchment paper or aluminum foil(this can be skipped if you are not planning to take the cake out from the pan as a whole), and brush the top of the paper with oil.

2 In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, 1 cup of the sugar, and orange juice until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and orange zest; whisk lightly to combine. If you whisk too much the gluten in flour forms tight network and makes the baked product to have bread-like texture.

3 Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan up to little less than an inch below an edge. You might need to bake left over batter in smaller container. ; sprinkle the top evenly with the remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Divide the sugar if you have two pans. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes.

4 (For those who have lots of patience)Cool the cake in the pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to separate it from the edge of the pan. Invert the cake gently onto a plate, and remove the parchment paper. Re-invert the cake onto a rack to cool completely before serving.
(For those who enjoys life as it is)Cool the cake in the pan long as you can. Run a knife around edge of cake to separate it from the edge of the pan. Cut them in many portions as you wish. Fork it out and eat it warm.

Ingredients Review

* 1 cup olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan (Use Pure Olive Oil, what you have is probably Extra Virgin Olive Oil which is low in acidity and stronger in its flavor which we want to avoid. The star of the cake is orange and cornmeal)
* 2 large eggs (The size of eggs do matter for majority of the baking but it doesn't weigh so much for this cake. If you are making gluten-free use 2 Jumbo eggs to increase binding and airiness)
* 1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for the topping (To bring out orange flavor stick with white sugar, for topping use white sugar to create smoother and cleaner flavor)
* 1/2 cup orange juice (or dry white wine)
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (don't pack your flour into a measuring cup, instead scoop with a large spoon and sprinkle into a measure cup; for gluten-free substitute with same amount of flour and add appropriate amount of xantham gum)
* 1/2 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal (Find stone ground cornmeal but if you want it smoother and less corn-bread like use steel ground cornmeal(complete removal of husk and germ) I use stone ground.)
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt (Use fine type of salt for even distribution of saltiness. Avoid fancy seasalt or Kosher salt)
* Zest of 1 large orange (There are multiple types of zester. For me I use one that is cheap and versatile. It looks like a tiny hole cheese grater.)