Mini Orange Cakes with a Vanilla Buttercream Swirl
Since moving to England 3 years ago I have definitely moved onto the tea drinking bandwagon. Part of that tea drinking bandwagon is cake. Sounds awful I know. No, not every tea needs to be accompanied with cake. With that in mind, tea and cake go together like cookies and milk. These mini orange cakes are perfect for afternoon tea. Their smaller size makes them feel a bit less naughty. I would suggest pairing these beauties with Early Grey or Lady Grey as these teas have lovely citrus notes. A breakfast tea is perfectly acceptable. Or the only acceptable tea for cake if you ask my boyfriend. I guess he is English, but I'm stick with my Early Grey.
Ingredients
Cake
175g softened butter
140g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
140g flour
50g of ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 2 oranges, 1/2 an orange for the cake, 1 1/2 for dipping
juice of 2 oranges
100g granulated sugar
Buttercream
110g of butter
190g of icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 tbsp of cream
- Cream the butter to add lots of air. It should turn a light shade of yellow.
- Slowly add the icing sugar until it has fully combined with the icing sugar.
- Add the vanilla and 1 tbsp of cream, whisk together.
- Add more cream depending on the consistency. To pipe on the cake, you need firm peaks.
Baking Time!
- Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C fan.
- Line a pan (approximately 20x20cm) with parchment paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, zest and 1/2 an orange's juice. Most likely the mix will curdle but do not be alarmed!
- Add the baking powder, flour and almonds.
- Whisk together on a high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture is full of air. The mixture should no longer be curdled now that the dry ingredients have been added.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 25-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool and then remove it from the pan.
- Cut off the edges of the cake and the cut into 16 small squares.
- Apply some orange juice to the top and sides of the cake either by dipping very carefully or using pastry brush.
- Then sprinkle or dip the cakes into the granulated sugar.
- Finally pipe on the buttercream frosting and add some orange peal for garnish.
