Do you see how stained and tattered this recipe is? Here it is, in the unmistakable handwriting of dear old friend MK. But the recipe is attributed to Pat Fesçi who was undoubtedly one of the original Old Hands on the Ankara scene. I didn’t actually know her but I bet she was one of those invincible American women who were so up for everything in those bygone days.
This is one of my very earliest recipes and I remember so well making it on numerous occasions (because I didn’t have that many recipes that I could fall back on!) and taking it to Gölbaşı, a lake outside Ankara, on a Sunday, still warm in the pan, for us and our good friends, the Somels, to have for tea!
this is not a pretentious cake: it is what it is: light, simple but totally delicious! |
In those days I didn’t own the necessary kitchen equipment to do this lovely teacake justice: I ground orange rind and walnuts in some sort of coffee grinder; I didn’t have the right shape or size tin in which to bake it either. I packed the mixture into a most unsuitable round tin with a hole in the middle and hoped for the best. It worked pretty well but it wasn’t ideal. And I’m sure my oven was a hit-and-miss affair!
orange kiss-me-cake |
But things change:
A few days ago, I woke up thinking I know what: I’ll make that kiss-me-cake today because there are a couple of oranges in the fridge that need using up!
So up I leapt only to find that mysteriously those oranges weren’t there! Hey! Not deterred, I went out and bought some from my corner guy. Luckily for me, everything around here is available on foot. While I was at it, I visited our local aktar and bought some fabulous fresh walnuts which this recipe requires.
The ingredients are lovely: orange rind and juice, walnuts and raisins! Perfect!
Orange Kiss-Me-Cake – a good light teacake: unpretentious with great depth of flavour
Ingredients
1 large orange
1 cup raisins/kuru üzüm
1/3 cup walnuts/ceviz
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup shortening (butter)
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
juice from orange
1 tsp cinnamon/tarçin
1/4 cup walnuts, ground
Method
- Grease and flour a 13 x 9 in pan (I used a 11 x 5 in non-stick loaf tin which was perfect).
- Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F.
- Squeeze orange and save juice.
- Grind orange rind, raisins and 1/3 cup walnuts in blender (you can divide them and do in two batches)..
- Combine flour with 1 cup sugar, soda, salt. Add shortening and milk and mix at low speed for 1½ min.
- Add eggs and beat 1½ min more.
- Stir in orange, raisins and walnuts.
like this … |
- Bake 40-50 mins.
- As soon as it come out of the oven, dribble the orange juice over the top of the cake.
- Combine 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon and 1/4 cup ground walnuts and spread over cake.
orange kiss-me-cake, ready to serve |
Afiyet olsun!
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