Orange Condensed Milk Pound Cupcake & Marble Loaf Cake

My family is undeniably a fan of simple cakes, like a gd'ol pound cake. When I first found this recipe on Bisous a Toi 's blog, I was smitten. I knew then that this cake would be a hit. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. The whole family just love this cake. It is simply divine.

I have baked it as it is countless times, but this time around, I put an orange twist to it. I've been eager to experiment the 'blended orange' cake recipe, where you blend the whole orange, skin and all and put it into the batter, but I was so sceptical that the cake would turn bitter. After I found a blended orange cake recipe in The Cake-Maker's Bible book that calls for the orange to be boiled and simmered before blending it, I was convinced that this method is a guarantee to eliminate any bitterness that may present in the orange. And it was indeed. What a relief! 

Plus, I also have this intention to bake something with a combination of orange and chocolate, as both are like a match made in baking heaven, right? So I divided the batter in half. Half of it was baked as 12 cupcakes, and another half was turned into a chocolate and orange marbled loaf. Glad I did that! What a combo! Definitely going to try it again in the future. For the original recipe, you can omit the orange and bake it at 170C for 45 mins as suggested by Kak Rima of Bisous a Toi 's.     

Orange Condensed Milk Pound Cupcake / Marble Loaf Cake
Sources: 
baking fiends unite! 
Bisous a Toi

Ingredients:

• 240gm good quality butter
• 90gm sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup (304gm) condensed milk
• 3 tsp vanilla paste
• 240gm cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 orange - I added
• 2 tsp cocoa powder / 1/2 tsp chocolate emulco 

Method

• Pierce the orange with a skewer. Put it in a deep pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, until soft. Drain, then cool. Cut the orange in half and discard the pips. Put the orange, skin and all, in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth and pulpy. Set aside. 
• Sift cake flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
• Add in salt and vanilla paste and cream well.
• Pour in condensed milk and cream till well combined.
• Using the mixer on low speed, add in flour in 3 additions. Mix till batter is smooth.
• Add in eggs one at a time. Make sure it's well mixed and smooth. Fold in the orange puree. Divide the batter in half.  
• For the Orange Condensed Milk Pound Cupcake, spoon and divide half of the batter above evenly into a 12-capacity muffin pan and bake at 165C for 25 mins.
• For the Marbled Orange Condensed Milk Pound Loaf cake, use the remaining half batter to bake it. Take out about a third of batter from the remaining half batter and add in 2 tsp of cocoa powder or 1/2 tsp of chocolate emulco. Marble the cocoa batter with 2/3 of the remaining batter in a greased loaf pan. Bake at 165C for 40 mins.