Orange Olive Oil Madeleines

Today, something horribly wonderful happened.

Joss Whedon (yes, the actual Joss Whedon, Avengers-Buffy-Firefly-Toy Story wait- I didn't know he wrote the screenplay for Toy Story! That makes me love him even more than I thought I possibly could!) tweeted my string ensemble's arrangement and video of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:

How much do I love this? The most much. #cornell #culture https://t.co/hP3LNFp2Wd”
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) June 25, 2013

ahsdjfklaskjdhfjkadlskjdhfjdalskjdhfjkla WHAT IS AIR.

HOLY HAMMER FREEZE-RAY.

I suddenly had over 50 Youtube notifications in my inbox from within a single hour. We went from just over 4,000 views (and that was after a few "tumblr-famous" people had already reblogged our video) to over 15,000 views in less than a day. CRAZY.

And still, though the numbers seem impressive, my mind is still boggling over the fact that the venerable Joss Whedon, master of all things horrible and/or shiny in the 'verse, has seen our video, let alone that he liked it. Scratch that, loved it! A video with me in it! My quartet! Joss Whedon! Me!

Donna Noble: spirit animal

Yeah... so what does this have to do with food? Absolutely nothing.

But I did make more madeleines yesterday!

taken with my iPhone

I adapted the recipe I used previously for these lemon madeleines and came up with these orange olive oil madeleines! I actually think these are moister and fluffier than the previous ones, and now I don't have to smell that awful raw butter stench anymore! (I seriously don't know what's wrong with me, but I can't stand that smell.) Plus, I'm willing to bet that these are healthier!

Since most of the steps are identical to those of the lemon madeleine post, I won't spam you with the requisite amount of photos I usually include, and will just give you the instructions instead!

(Still freaking out about Joss Whedon.)

INGREDIENTS

- 2 eggs
- ¾ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ½ cup AP flour
- 1 Tbsp orange zest
- ¼ cup olive oil
- (optional) powdered sugar for decoration

NOTE: The batter using olive oil instead of melted butter is a little more liquid-y, so it makes 28 mini madeleines (which probably translates to 14 regular-sized madeleines).

• Preheat oven to 375°F. (You may choose to turn on the oven a couple of steps later, after having beat the eggs/sugar mixture and grated/zested the orange peel, but it won't hurt to preheat early so that you don't forget.)

• In a medium to large-sized mixing bowl, beat the eggs, salt, and vanilla extract at high speed until light and slightly frothy, using an electric mixer or hand mixer.

• Beating constantly, gradually add the sugar, and continue to beat the mixture on high speed until it is thick and pale, and ribbons form when you lift the beaters. (Beating for 3 to 5 minutes was sufficient time in my case.)

• Sift the flour into the rest of the mixture a third at a time, gently folding in the flour after each addition.

• Add the orange zest.

• Now, measure out ¼ cup of olive oil. This is the point at which I prepared the madeleine molds, rather than right after preheating the oven. You can use some of the ¼ cup olive oil to grease the molds, using the very tips of a basting brush. Then lightly flour each mold.

• Now, use the rest of the ¼ cup olive oil, pouring it around the edges of the batter. Quickly but gently fold the olive oil into the batter.

• Spoon your batter into the molds; the batter should slightly mound above the tops. Again, the olive oil version is more liquidy, so the mounds won't be as prominent as they would be with a butter recipe.

• Bake for 14 to 17 minutes, or until the madeleines are golden and the tops spring back when gently prodded by your fingertip. (Mine baked in 15 minutes.)

• Let the madeleines cool in the molds, for at least 15 minutes. Pop them out of the molds carefully, and let cool on a plate.

I made these late at night, so the lighting is very different from usual!

I personally think these taste best when still warm - go ahead and test "a few" after they cool off a bit :P - but they can keep for a few days, and are even good beyond that when dunked in coffee or tea! Because the olive oil ones are moister, you may want to lay them shell-side down on a dry paper towel in a container.

(Another note: the grooves/shell patterning are more noticeable when using nonstick molds, rather than silicon. Nonstick pans also give a more golden coloring to the madeleines. However, nonstick cooking ware have chemicals, or so my mom tells me, and in any case, silicon is so easy to clean up at the very end!)

I brought these to work and also gave a few to friends (shoutout to Maddie and Marza!), and they all loved them! (And then Maddie told me that one of her summer course professors was raving about our video in class.)

Brilliant end to the day! (Or should I say... horrible?) <3

Moroccan Orange Cake

This Moroccan Orange Cake recipe is one of the first things I ever tried when I was learning how to bake, and it still remains one of my family's favorites.

It all began when we bought too much orange juice for a dinner party, and the rest is history. Or something like that.

Most of the ingredients needed for this cake are things I'd normally have lying around the house, which is good for when I've got an itch to bake something. It means it's also good for spur-of-the-moment stress baking.

I've slightly adapted the recipe from this meskouta recipe. Mine runs on the slightly less sugary side; as I've said before, my family tends to prefer desserts that aren't cloyingly sweet. You can experiment with the amount of sugar based on your own tastes.

INGREDIENTS
- 4 eggs
- heaping 3/4 cup sugar *
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups AP flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- zest from 1-2 oranges
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

* original says 1 ½ cups

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Grease and lightly flour a cake pan (I used a 9"x1.5" round pan, but you could also use a tube pan. I've also made these into cupcakes and a small cake loaf, diminishing the baking time accordingly.)

Start by cracking open 4 eggs. (I used large brown eggs.)

Beat together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick. (You can mix the entire recipe's ingredients in one bowl, if you like.)

Gradually beat in the oil.

Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. (I measured everything into one large measuring cup, but you could use smaller measuring cups as long as you don't lose count of how much of each ingredient you've added so far!)

(Add in the dry ingredients gradually, 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time, to prevent the flour from flying out everywhere.)

Your batter should be fairly thick, enough to form ribbons when you lift your spoon/mixing utensil/hand mixer.

Now add in the orange juice.

The batter will become runnier, with faster-forming ribbons.

Add in the vanilla extract.

And now for the orange zest! (You can zest the oranges earlier on if you want.) I used zest from one orange. The time it was taking for me to use the grater was starting to grate on me (haha see what I did there?) so I eventually took to the orange with a peeler and then chopped the peels into smaller pieces using a rocking motion of the knife.

If you want extra bite, cut up some of the peel into larger pieces.

Mix well, so that the zest is evenly incorporated.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan/baking vessel of choice, and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. If your batter has bubbles in it, tap the pan gently against the tabletop.

(My cake got crispy edges when I baked it for 40 minutes, which my dad claims is the best part.)

Let the cake cool in its pan for 7 to 10 minutes, before turning it over onto a rack to finish cooling. (You could probably avoid the crack on the top of the case by using a slightly larger pan. I kind of like it though: reminds me of Doctor Who.)

Top with powdered sugar, if you'd like. I've also decorated with simple icing and orange slices before.

However, it is probably healthier and yet still unbelievably tasty without anything extra! Plus, it's fairly versatile as cakes go: makes for a great dessert and a tasty breakfast. And of course, it's good with fruit (like these fresh cherries) or fruit juice!

(Vegan) (Dark) Chocolate Mug Cake

[edit] I received some comments that some of the products I used for this are in fact not vegan. The base recipe allows for a vegan version, but as I am not vegan, I am not as strict about which products I use. It was definitely an education on what goes into some products, so this is a disclaimer that while this recipe can be made to fit a vegan diet, it might not necessarily end up being vegan depending on which products/brands you use. [/edit]

In the past couple of weeks (read: finals weeks), I have been on a mission. A very important mission.

Make all the mug cakes.

All of them.

I believe that at this point, I have tested out 5 different recipes. They have all been successful except for the failed incident of the banana mug bread - looked good, tasted like rubber - of which I shall never mention again. (Poor wasted banana. You had a good inanimate life... while it lasted.)

The only thing that might possibly bar you from the most joyfully easy cake experience of your life is the amount of calories. Not that I really understand how to calculate calories from a bunch of ingredients. Not that I would ever want to. I refer you to the [self-proclaimed troll-] queen herself:


(I love her so so much sometimes.)

But on all the food blogs that I have frequented in order to find the mug cake recipes, some (I'm sure well-meaning, but as you know, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions... and a certain narrator named Dante who is prone to fainting spells) commenter has pointed out just how many hundreds of calories you're going to intake and how it will make you cry big fat tears of fat. (Or that's just how it comes across to me. I hate the 'thinspiration' movement, not only for its pretentious name.) I like healthy, just not judgmental tyranny.

Now, I don't know how many calories this one has (please don't burst my bubble), but it has a lot less oil than the other ones I have tried thus far, without sacrificing taste! In fact, I think this vegan chocolate mug cake had the best consistency out of all them, although that might have been because I am now a practiced mug cake-maker.

I got the original recipe here from a blog called Aromatic Cooking. The first time I made it, I microwaved it for a bit too long, because the previous mug cakes were a bit too moist originally. But the specs provided on the original recipe for this one are spot on!

I'm not vegan, so I did add a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream the first time I had this, but the good thing is that if you are vegan, this is at its basis a vegan recipe! Also, cooking with eggs can be messy and/or just annoying, especially since salmonella really scares some people, so this recipe is quite simple and stress-free.

In addition, this recipe takes about 5 minutes to make, or perhaps even less time if you don't get distracted by an episode of Elementary like I did.

I will repost the ingredients and instructions here with my slight modifications, but definitely do check out the original recipe page!

INGREDIENTS *

3 Tbsp AP flour
2 Tbsp sugar **
1 1/2 Tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder ***
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp orange juice
2 1/2 tsp oil

*be sure to check your products' ingredients if you wish to make this vegan! The cocoa mix and baking powder I used are not vegan, so substitute accordingly.
**original recipe calls for an extra tsp but I found it was fine without
***original calls for unsweetened cocoa powder. If you used sweetened cocoa powder, use less than 2 Tbsp sugar

Add all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda) into a mug and mix. (Say hello to my awesome heat-changing TARDIS mug!)

Add in the orange juice and oil, and mix well. Make sure no clumps remain at the bottom or on the sides of the mug. (TIP: If you're lazy like me, you can use the other end of the spoon to stir, leaving the other side clean for eventual eating of the mug cake. You're welcome.)

Microwave for 1 minute 45 seconds. (You can go up to 2 minutes, but check at 1:45 to see if it's the consistency you want before adding on time, otherwise it could get quite dry.) Let cool.

(See? The TARDIS materialized into space on the other side of the mug! It travels in space and time! In a small white box that does magic wibbly-wobbly heat wave things when you set a time!)

If you want to transplant the cake from the mug to a plate, let it cool for at least a few minutes, otherwise it might crumble apart.

Feel free to decorate! Fruit, yogurt, powdered sugar, etc. I used clementines this time to complement the orange juice, but I used bananas (see above) last time and it was very delicious.

Noms.

Later that night, I got to see my favorite band of all time, The National. I got second row tickets! The music was absolutely phenomenal: they really are such great musicians, and Matt Berninger is a god.

I also got one of the band's setlists! It now resides next to one of my Audrey Hepburn posters in my bedroom.

I can now die happy.

Hope you have fun making your mug cake, and as always, comments are much appreciated! Let me know what you think of it. I will probably be testing out more mug cake recipes in future posts too.

Allons-y!