Gateau Orange Caramel
This is a "gateau orange caramel," which I got from Cuisine et Vins de France, a French culinary magazine I like very much. The cake reminds one of a tarte tatin in that the oranges sit in a foundation of caramel, topped with almond cake batter, while cooking. It is flipped over after cooling a bit and napped with a syrup of fresh orange juice and sugar.The recipe calls for Grand Marnier in the batter. My wife, whom I lovingly refer to as "kitchen witch" as she loves to make all kinds of liqueurs and extraordinary bitters, provided her "Cointreau," a delicious orange liqueur she makes.The recipe also calls for "faisselle égoutté" which by French law is a raw milk, fresh cheese. (faisselle is literally the mold the cheese is drained in, and "égoutté" refers to a drained cheese - as opposed to a cheese pressed or otherwise manipulated). Just a very soft, fresh cheese. Easy to make, I've made it many times but I haven't made cheese in a log time and have no cultures so I substituted the faisselle égoutté with Chobani yogurt - I made a "sack" with double layers of tight-weave cheesecloth and drained it overnight over a bowl in the frigo. Came out beautifully.
I just downed a piece of toast delicately blanketed with creamed cheese & self made orange marmalade. Your cake looks absolutly delicious! My oranges are turning colour and getting ripe. Mmmmm
That sounds delicious, Mini. I love making my own preserves and marmalades too and I know yours rocks. We used to have a Mihu-Liisa that unfortunately we lost over the years else I'd be making jellies, too (i.e., autumn seasonal charcuterie with quince jelly). It will be nice to know what you do with your beauties!
That is a beautiful cake Paul, really well done and a perfectly sunny photo to look at here as the sun just starts to rise. I’m sure I’d enjoy a slice of that cake.
Benny
That's really nice, Benny, thank you. I'll share something that is pretty special to me, and uncannily, it lines up with your comment - and she's in the same field. A lead nurse in my medical team, both a superlative caregiver and friend, now, after over a decade together, had this to say about the cake: "This is so beautiful. Winter sunshine!"
I think about her and all caregivers constantly. Thank you for what you do. You and your colleagues are under such duress and it needs to be made more prominent in all our stories. Please stay safe.
She sounds like a special person Paul, you’re lucky to have her both as a caregiver and friend. Winder sunshine is what we all need right now. You stay safe and healthy as well.
Happy Baking
Benny
I made this for my Christmas Eve dessert this year. This recipe was called a Sicilian Whole Orange Cake,also made with almond flour. You simmer the oranges for two hours, then puree and use it in the batter. I served it with an Italian orange liquor whipped cream.
flavored whipped cream.
That is absolutely gorgeous! I'd love the recipe, or where you got it. Beautifully done, FloridaShark.
This is the recipe I used. I call it Sicilian orange cake because that’s what I’m familiar with as the name of the cake. I used regular whole oranges for the recipe.
http://cluckmuckcook.co.uk/blood-orange-upsidedown-cake/
Hi Paul, I'm looking to make this, but the sugar weights don't seem to reconcile:
150 + 120 + 30g in the stages, but the recipe total states 210g.
Did you just go with the stage weights?
Lance
Hey Lance - ha! - to be honest I only have a vague recollection but I think I did figure it was a screwup and went with the stage weights. Good pickup!
No problem, Paul - I agree it seems to be the total weight figure that's wrong.
Anyway, it worked for me. I had some blood oranges and it made for a spectacular pud. Thanks for the recipe!
Lance
IMG_2477.JPG
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/clementine-cake
Whoops, I can't figure out the French recipe. :( Wish I could read French.
Dairy? Flour? I got nuts, going nuts with nuts and eggs. Did read one recipe where the cooling but still warm cake was docked with a screwer and syrup poured into the holes. Then flipped out onto the serving plate. Might try that. Parking orange lined pan, orange syrup, cooked orange mash in the pantry until tomorrow.
Mini, here's the translated recipe:
Ingredients
4 oranges
3 eggs
100g butter
210g blond sugar
125g flour
50g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
60g drained cottage cheese
2 tbsp. tablespoon Grand Marnier
Steps
Make an amber caramel with 150 g of sugar and 4 tbsp. water. Pour the caramel into the bottom of a springform pan and let set.
Cut 2 oranges into thin slices and arrange them in a rosette on top.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare the cake batter. Crack 3 eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer and add 120 g of sugar. Whisk to whiten everything, then add the cottage cheese, Grand Marnier, soft butter, almond powder, flour and baking powder. Pour the mixture into the mold and bake for 35 minutes.
Meanwhile, squeeze 2 oranges and collect their juice. Heat it in a saucepan with 30 g of sugar, mix and let it reduce for a few minutes.
Let the cake cool. 15 minutes after taking it out of the oven, unmold and cover with the orange syrup before serving.
Lance
Wow you guys, beautiful. I really love the pretty hues you're getting in the oranges. Thanks for the translation Lance. Haven't read the recipe in awhile but I'm sure you nailed it.
Hate complaining about it all the time but from several conditions I'm a pretty bad insomniac and only got a couple hours so my brain is fried. Forgive not being around much and apologize ahead of time if I get anything wrong.
I seem to recall something about the cheese sub - a product we can't get here and I forget the name but I think it was something like a French fresh white cheese, very creamy. I think what I did got some Greek or fhicker/richer/firmer yogurt and drained it through muslin/fine cheesecloth (pillowcase linen a good sub) overnight or 24 hrs over a bowl in the fridge. Worked nicely very fine "paste" more than any curding, even more than serac (made similarly to a ricotta, heated whey after making a hard alpine cheese until the acidity naturally created during curdling induces small flecks of curdled cheese which are then gathered and drained. A typically frugal way to extend milk yields for alpine families). I'm sure cottage cheese is awesome as well.
Looking beautiful guys. Looking forward to your impressions afterwards. Ciao/Tschüss for now.
Paul
I think cottage cheese is a mistranslation - the original wording was faisselle égouttée; as you suggest Paul, some kind of low fat curd cheese. I used Greek yoghurt, but I think Quark would work well.
Lots of room for substitution; I don't think it's critical.
Lance
Yeah, don't know if you speak French or not but maybe for others, "faisselle" is just the name of the mold used in forming and draining the cheese, and "égouttée" just literally means "drained," so pretty straightforward fresh cheese meant to be eaten quickly. (made with raw milk in its home base and pasteurized everywhere. Big booster for raw milk but never for fresh raw milk cheeses....I think that's a seriously dangerous practice. But that's OT). I thought quark would be an excellent sub too, but didn't have the culture(s) (or time) to make it. Did you drain your yogurt, or use as is?
And totally agree, wide latitude of play in terms of subs.
Birthday cake for MIL Keep drooling! With the blood oranges some were so red! Boiling them with the lighter more orange colored slices lightened the reds and darkened the orange ones, so the topping cooking the slices first in sugar and water worked out well. The caramel syrop is not as developed as in the French recipe. I put parchment paper over the base of my springform pan and clamped it into place but it still leaked. I strongly suggest lining a springform pan with parchment. (This cake is 6 eggs, 225g sugar, cooked two orange purée, orange liqueur and 250g grated whole almonds.) The house stills smells wonderful 12 hours later. I also baked some gingerbread hearts those aromas lingering in the air too. We got Sahara desert dust coming down so keeping the windows shut today, my pleasure.
IMG_2485.PNG
WHOA!
A sort of "3 dimensional" topping!
Lance
I will be making this version soon. It does look interesting with the oranges falling over the sides.
Storing the oranges overnight gave me some ideas. The slices could be simmered in syrup and hot packed into jars, covering with the syrup. Same with the purée or freeze the puree or the cooked citrus whole. Then make the cake out of season.
Can't wait to find out how the cake tastes and how the peel behaves in cutting and eating.
Pretty sweet too! Next time even less sugar than the recipe and the crumb is very very moist. Can forget after bake docking and adding left over syrup to the nut/egg/orange purée version. Wow! great flavour and surprisingly not a bomb-shell of too much flavour. The orange skins are a little tricky to cut thru with a dessert fork but nobody is complaining to get extra orange peel dragged over a forkful of cake. Hubby and me each has two portions with whipped cream. Dessert plates came back into the kitchen licked clean!
I beat the eggs until they were light and foamy, sprinkling in the sugar slowly as I beat away on high speed. I then spooned in the orange puree letting it blend well before adding the liquor, cut back on the 1Tbs baking powder (didn't want the cake to taste like soap) to the half whisking it into the grated nuts before folding into the egg gotch. Large standard mixing bowl very full. Filled my 9.5"springform to 1 cm under the top edge. Was worried it might bake over but it rose right up to the edge and domed nicely during the bake. Slipped in a sheet of alufoil over the cake around 35 minute mark.
So is that the Nigella cake, Mini?
Lance
using tips from Nigella. Chuckmuck has one tbsp baking powder, too much. Nigella lists one teaspoon. It's actually almost identical to an old Austrian recipe so I went with it. Saw it listed many times under other authors. From what I can tell from all the recipe reading for upside-down orange cake, there are two basic ways to go about making the topping and more ways to make the cake.
It's pretty easy to combine the orange topping with a favourite cake of your own liking. The amount of sugar makes me think it originates with sour oranges or lemons. Something to keep in mind when playing with the sugar amounts in the cake batter. A good eating orange might get too sweet with 200g sugar in it. The recipe asked for 250g. I used 225g. I passed the recipe on and my friend changed the sugar to 150g.
Translation of the French recipe is not lost on me. I plan on making it when my blood sugar returns to normal. :)
That cake is exquisite, Mini.
t
Wow so many awesome orange cakes here, stunning all.
Benny