Orange Upside Down Cake and New Year Vibes !

We are two months and four days past the New Year but still can't help making a reference to it  as  I proudly proclaim this particular blog post to be my first one of 2017. No mean feat considering the fact that  writing baking blog posts has  taken a backseat lately . But, hey another year has  dawned and I for one  intent to fully embrace the positive spirits that New Year brings . Sincerely wishing  that  maybe this year will be different from last year in the fact that  I might surprise you guys with ample quantity of new blog posts though the strict definition of "ample" in this case might be debatable. Whatever number of blog posts I end up writing this year , lets give it a good solid start with this particular one which is for an sticky  upside down orange cake. It is my way of paying culinary homage to the current citrus season.

So, grab your cloth grocery bags and make the trip to your nearest food store or farmer's market to stock up on these seasonal delights . In my case, it is our neighborhood H-Mart  which opened recently and carries a huge variety of greens at not too bad prices. My visit to this Korean food store was prompted by my excitement while visiting "exotic" food stores. I can spend many a happy hour exploring  the aisles for exotic and foreign ingredients in the hope that they might inspire my next bake . Did not get sufficiently inspired this time so another visit is in order but the visit was not entirely unproductive as  I did manage to get some juicy oranges for my upside down cake.

Coming to the actual preparation of this particular bake, like any upside down cake, you need a sticky base at the bottom where you place the fruit batter that will rise in sufficient amount when placed on top of the fruit and result in a good even bake in the oven.Normally, we make a brown sugar-butter base like in pineapple upside cake but here we will be going for candied orange slices which we will be making ourselves.For the batter, we will also incorporate some almond meal along with all purpose flour and the baking temperature will be reduced to 325 degrees fahrenheit.You could beat the egg whites separately for the rise but I am not feeling too much inclined towards that method. I will beat my eggs whole though I might add some orange essence.

Ingredients-

Sticky Orange Topping
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
2 oranges thinly sliced

The Cake
4 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond meal
6 oz butter
2 tsp baking powder


Method-
For the topping -

Take a saucepan and to it add  water,sugar and vanilla .
Place it on medium heat .(You may add some cinnamon and star anise to it for flavor)
Keep on stirring over medium heat   until all the sugar has dissolved. 

Now add the orange slices and let them simmer for 15 minutes until soft.
Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

For the Cake -

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare the cake pan by greasing and coating it with flour.

In a bowl. place the  eggs, sugar and vanilla .Whisk them with the help of an electric mixer till they become pale and become triple in volume.

Now sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold in .

Next is the turn of  melted butter and almond meal to be  folded in the mixture.

In a greased cake pan,  place the orange slices at the bottom.

Over the oranges, pour the cake mixture and level it with  a spatula.

Bake for 40-45 minutes till a needle inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool and serve it along with your favorite beverage.

Note : The blog post was written some time in March but posted in May . We understand that the year is not new anymore but the author would still like to believe so .