Orange Zest Cake

It seems lately that I can’t leave the market without an 8-10lb bag of oranges. I think it’s just knowing that for so many years I lived away from here and citrus just didn’t taste like what I remembered it to be. Long story short, not a day goes by with out a piece of citrus in my house this winter. So I thought I would try some recipes with citrus instead of just snacking on it. This cake was a delicious fresh home reconstruction of a yellow cake mix I have grown up with (minus food coloring and artificial flavoring). I tried a mini loaf pan and cupcakes – but a bunt pan or square baking pan would work just as nice.

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, room temperature

1cup sugar

3 lrg. Eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tbsp (about 1 orange worth) orange zest

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour desired pan. Juice and zest one large orange, combine and set aside.

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until lightly whipped. Beat in eggs one at a time and mix in vanilla.

In another bowl mix dry ingredients together. With the mixer on low add dry ingredients alternating with sour cream and orange juice slowly. Mix until well blended. Bake depending on pan size (45 min for bunt cake – 15/20 for cup cakes). It's ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

Sheila’s Tasty Apple Cake

I remember when we were kids and the two kinds of available apples were red or green. I am amazed at how much fresher they taste in the winter and now seem to come in every variety possible. I think we used 4 different kinds of apples because I was like a kid in a candy store and wanted to taste every kind. While I like to bake I wouldn’t call myself a “baker” since I sometimes find myself being very liberal with quantities in my cooking – this recipe was just right, simple ingredients and very few steps.

4 cups apples, peeled and cored ~ 4-5 apples

2 cups flour

2 eggs

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 cup walnuts (toast these in the oven first)

½ cup oil *

* we substituted for apple sauce- for a low fat version as well. It was quite tasty but the cake came out much denser and sweeter. It felt more like a breakfast treat than dessert.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and slice apples.

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately (besides apples and nuts). Combine wet and dry ingredients together then mix in walnuts and apples.

Pour batter into a 9x12 greased baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for ~ 45min or until top is crisp and knife comes out clean. Enjoy!