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Easter cake with orange zest
Surely every housewife has a family recipe for making Easter cake with orange zest and juice. Very often, the family recipe is passed down from generation to generation, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter. Or perhaps it's the most delicious cake you've ever had, you've saved the recipe, and now it has become your family’s. But every year, besides the cake made from the family recipe, every housewife wants to bake some new cake for herself, using a new technique or additional ingredients. For citrus and cottage cheese lovers, such an option can be Alexandrian cake, or a cake with orange zest. Already in the very name, there’s some intrigue; you want to prepare it quickly and try it, to find out what the result will be.
The dough contains orange juice and zest, and in addition to raisins, orange candied fruits are added. Orange juice is also added to the glaze. Baking a cake with orange zest and juice is not difficult, and it turns out tasty and beautiful.
Preparation time: 4 hours.
1 mold: diameter 13 * height 8 ;
2 molds: diameter 9 * height 8;
Ingredients
Show ingredients
- flour (sifted) – 350 g;
- sugar – 150 g;
- cottage cheese – 200 g;
- butter – 50-60 g;
- milk (warm) – 60 ml;
- yeast – 25 g. (fresh) or 10 g. (dry);
- eggs – 2 pcs. + 1 yolk;
- vanilla sugar – 2 tsp;
- salt – 1⁄2 tsp;
- large orange – 1 pc. (squeeze juice and grate zest).
For the glaze:
- powdered sugar – 100 g;
- orange juice – 1.5-2 tsp.
Preparation
- Before starting to prepare the cake, you need to prepare all the ingredients in advance. At least an hour beforehand, they should be placed on the table, measured by weight or quantity. This golden rule must be followed so that the ingredients can reach the same temperature and you have everything at hand during cooking.
- First, let's prepare the sponge. Heat the milk to 30-35°C, add the yeast. From the total amount of ingredients, add one tablespoon of flour and one teaspoon of sugar.
- Mix the sponge thoroughly. Both fresh and dry yeast can be used; see the recipe for the calculations. The bowl with the sponge needs to be placed in a warm place without drafts. The microwave may work perfectly for this. Place the sponge in the microwave and put a cup of hot water next to it. Just don't turn on the microwave.
- While the sponge rises, prepare the dough. Place the cottage cheese and soft butter in a blender cup.
- Blend the mixture until smooth.
- In a large bowl, beat two eggs and one yolk. The egg white can be saved for the glaze.
- Add salt, vanilla sugar, and turmeric to give a rich color. Start beating.
- Gradually add all the sugar while beating until the mixture is fluffy.
- Add the blended cottage cheese and butter mixture, along with the prepared orange juice, to the egg mixture.
- Add the grated zest to the egg mixture as well.
- Carefully mix everything with a spatula. By this time, the yeast has started working well, and the sponge has risen. Add the sponge to the main mass.
- Gradually introduce the sifted flour, mixing thoroughly. The amount of flour may be slightly more or less, depending on the size of the orange and, accordingly, the amount of juice.
- Knead the mixture well with a spoon or spatula. Cover the bowl with the dough with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise. The dough should increase two and a half to three times. This may take two hours.
- During this time, prepare the citrus candied fruits and raisins. The raisins must be washed in warm water and dried. After the raisins are dry, they should be tossed in flour so that they distribute evenly in the molds.
- The dough has risen in the microwave for two and a half hours, it has risen well. We didn’t turn on the microwave; it simply served the function of a closed space. A cup of hot water was placed next to the dough, maintaining a warm temperature.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl and add the candied fruits and raisins. Mix the dough with a spatula.
- We grease the paper molds with vegetable oil using a silicone brush. We fill the dough halfway up the mold. We leave space for the dough to rise.
- The kulich baked for exactly one hour at 170°C. We need to check the readiness of the pascha with a wooden skewer, and only then take it out of the oven. We leave the kulichs on a rack to cool.
- For the orange kulich, we will prepare an unusual glaze. We will not use egg white. We take one hundred grams of powdered sugar and add only two teaspoons of orange juice. Mix well. To prevent the glaze from becoming too runny and the powdered sugar from dissolving in the orange liquid, everything must be done carefully. It is better to initially add only one teaspoon of juice to the powdered sugar, mix the mass thoroughly, and add more if necessary. It may turn out that only half a teaspoon of juice is needed.
- We add a pinch of turmeric to the glaze to give it an orange color. Food coloring can be added, but it's optional.
- We cover the kulichs with glaze. This icing hardens quickly, and if decorating the kulichs with sprinkles, it should be done very quickly.
- We leave the orange kulichs on the rack until completely dry.
The kulich with orange zest and juice is ready. Such kulichs will delight children and lovers of citrus fruits. It is definitely worth making paschas according to this recipe; perhaps it will remain in your culinary notebook as a family recipe.
Wishing everyone a bright Easter!
