Marbled Sicilian Orange Cake

A classic orange cake marbled with chocolate. You can make it plain without the cocoa batter and drizzle with orange icing if you like.

Marbled Sicilian Orange Cake

Adapted from: Bisous A Toi ,The Kitchen Guardian & Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients:

250g butter, soft

250g caster sugar *I reduced to 220g

4 medium eggs

250g self-raising flour (or you can use 250g all purpose flour & add 1 tsp baking powder)

1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest (or zest from two oranges)

85ml orange juice *I used 100ml

1/2 tbsp 'Sunquick' orange fruit drink concentrate *I added (optional)

1 tsp vanilla, I added

4 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 22cm cake pan. *I preheated at 170C 

2. Using an electrical beater, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 3. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, if necessary adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Beat in the orange zest and vanilla. Add the flour all at once and mix well, then slowly mix in the orange juice and concentrate (of using).

4. Spoon out a third of the batter and sift in the cocoa powder. Mix well.

5. Pour the remaining two thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Dollop the cocoa batter on top and swirl with a skewer. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50mins or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake, comes out clean. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of lightly greased aluminum foil. 

5. Leave the cake, in the pan, to cool on a wire rack, then unmold and serve. 

Note:
I halved the recipe above and baked this cake in a 9X5 inch loaf pan for about 30 mins.

Brown Butter Strawberry Banana Bread

This bread is a case of having overripe bananas and close to squishy, bruised strawberries in the fridge. Yep, this recipe had me at brown butter. It's seriously delicious and decadently moist. A secret to moist banana bread is not to over mix the batter. Treat the batter the same way you would with muffin's. Stir the wet and dry ingredients just until combined. It is meant to be lumpy! Enough talking. Go bake this now!   

Brown Butter Strawberry Banana Bread
Source:Joy the Baker

Ingredients:
6 ounces (110g) unsalted butter, melted and browned to just over 1/2 cup of butter *I used salted
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt *I used 1/4 tsp
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon *I omit
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain yogurt (any fat content) or buttermilk *I used buttermilk
1 1/4 cup mashed banana (from about 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup diced strawberries plus 1 strawberry very thinly sliced, for topping 

Method:
1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F (180C). Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan and set aside. *My oven runs a little high, so I preheated it at 160C.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Butter will begin to foam and crackle as it melts. When the crackling subsides, the butter will begin to brown. Swirl the pan as the butter cooks. When the butter browns and begins to smell nutty, remove the pan from the flame and transfer the butter to a small bowl. Taking the butter out of the hot saucepan will stop the butter from overcooking and burning. Set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract, and yogurt or buttermilk. Whisk in the mashed bananas. When butter has cooled, whisk in the browned butter.
5. Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients. Fold together, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to reveal any hidden pockets of flour. Fold in the diced strawberries. Fold together ingredients, but try not to over stir.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and top with thinly sliced strawberries. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. *I baked for 1 hour 
7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 15 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Bread will last 4 days, well wrapped at room temperature. This loaf also freezes well. 

Be careful not to over work the batter ok.