Baked Goods (and Orange Cake)

I love baked goods. Few things are better than a perfectly moist cupcake with a generous smear of frosting. Equal parts cake to frosting is not a bad thing. Recently, it has become cool to hate on the cupcake -- which I hate. I mean, "don't hate the player, hate the game". I thought everyone knew that. Cupcakes rule.

In addition to loving cupcakes, I love brownies, blondies, chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, blueberry muffins, pumpkin bread, banana bread, pumpkin pie, apple pie, scones, rugala, pound cake, pecan pie, chocolate cake, cheesecake, danishes, crumb cake, strawberry rhubarb crisp and apple brown betty. This list is suppose to make you hungry. Is it working?

The problem with baked goods is the baking part. They are not easy to execute well. Pretty much everyone can make a decent cookie but to make a GREAT cookie is not easy. I read a lot of recipes, and many baking recipes (specifically cakes and cookies) call for precise measurements, oven temperature, cooking time, and room temperature ingredients. Now, I'm good at getting my butter to room temperature. My Irish grandmother never put her butter in the refrigerator. It always sat out in a cool corner in the kitchen. I don't do the same exactly, but I do put my butter out the night before I bake something or the morning before I have company over for dinner. Soft butter is just so awesome. But the one thing I'm not comfortable with is the room temperature egg. How do I get it room temperature? I leave it out all day? That seems wrong. I take a lot of pride in my cooking, and my wost nightmare would be to serve food that will make people sick. Some live dangerously, I do not. When the recipe calls for room temperature eggs, I ignore.

The following recipe I found online. It's a Mario Batali' recipe. The preparation and ingredients are simple. A few easy steps that I can put to memory. This is my favorite kind of recipe.

Olive Oil and Orange Cake

6 medium sized oranges
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 eggs
1 1/4 all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350

Zest the 6 oranges, and juice one of them. Combine zest, juice and olive oil in small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, sift flour with baking soda and set aside. In yet one more bowl (this time a large bowl), whip eggs, sugar and salt until fluffy (2 minutes). If you have a hand mixer use it, otherwise a whisk will do fine.

In increments combine flour with egg mixture, folding in gently with spoon until combined. Then do the same for the orange olive oil mixture.

Once fully combined, pour into an oiled 9 inch cake pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Let cook for about an hour, and then dust with some powdered sugar.

Perfect summertime dessert.