Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

We are still in “Oranges season” here and our Valle del Guadalhorce is pretty much famous for its orange trees. My brother and a friend brought home several bags of oranges freshly collected from the countryside, so I try to find creative and delicious ways to use them.

Searching the web I found a “Moroccan Orange Cake” recipe that looked simple and delicious, so changing  it up a little and adding a Cointreau sauce  we came up with this truly fantastic cake to go with a cup of coffee or tea.

To my delight it was so delicious that my DH asked me to bake some cupcakes  with this recipe for his workmates.

We still have oranges at home!

So, if you want to give it a try, here you have the recipe:

Orange cake with Cointreau sauce

Cake Ingredients

• 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 ½ cups of margarine, melted
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 sachet of baking powder (15g)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ½ a cup of fresh orange juice
• Zests of two oranges

Preparation

• Get your orange zest and juice ready. 
• Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and flour a tube pan or your cupcake tray. 
• With an electric mixer  beat together the eggs and sugar until thick. Gradually beat in the melted margarine. Make sure the margarine has cooled down before adding it to the mix. 
• Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, and then the orange juice. Continue with the electric mixer until smooth, and then mix in the zest and vanilla. 
• Pour the batter into your prepared pan or into the cupcake try, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. 
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling. 
• Soak the cake with the Cointreau and Orange syrup  while it is still warm. With the cupcakes, follow the same procedure and for even better results, grab a bakery syringe and inject the syrup into the cupcakes. Once the syrup is cold it will get a thicker consistency.

Ingredients for the Cointreau and orange syrup

• ½ cup of white sugar
• ¾ cup of fresh orange juice
• 1 shot (about 3-4 tbs) of Cointreau

Preparation

In a pan, mix together the sugar and fresh orange juice and take it to boil. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and add the Cointreau (Dark rum also goes really well with this cake). Let it cool down for about 100 minutes and then while it is still warm, pour it over the cake.

If you try the recipe, please let me know how it goes.

Leti.-