Orange Blossom Cake Bread

 

Orange Blossom Cake Bread is orange blossom semolina cake bread with turmeric, orange zest and semolina. Very tasty, simple and special Indian treat !

 

During my stay in ashram in India several years back, the food we had was tasty beyond imaginable ! All meals were vegetarian and I especially fell for desserts.

After lunch, I passed by a kiosk selling homemade snacks. I would usually stop there to have a small talk with the lady while she cut several squares of orange blossom cake, wrapping them for me to have during the afternoon.

There was nothing that fancy about it. No fancy decorations or special glazes. I recognized orange zest only. No orange juice. That much about my taste buds.

Once I returned home, I really did my best to find a recipe that would, at least, taste like those sweet bites and it took me quite a long time to discover exactly the one: orange cake that has no eggs in the batter.

Turmeric powder makes it so nicely colored and full of flavours. Besides, turmeric has so many health benefits. To learn more, please look here .

 

Once you decide to bake this orange blossom cake loaf, start with dry ingrediens. In medium sized bowl, combine, flour, semolina, baking powder, turmeric and sugar. Please be careful with the amount of turmeric. If you add more than suggested, your cake batter may turn into quite bitter mix.

Turmeric powder is flavor-wise, it is overwhelmingly earthy and bitter, almost musky, with a bit of peppery spice. That deep, kind of implacable flavor in most curry powders? Yep: That’s turmeric. And while the flavor turmeric offers is huge, its color is just as remarkable, says Bon Apettit  .

So, to continue with preparation, add wet ingredients ( there is no butter in this blossom cake but vegetable oil ) to the bowl and you will notice how your orange blossom cake turns into vibrant orange color. It has nothing to do with orange juice. There’s no any. It’s turmeric powder and just four drops of edible orange blossom extract.

It seems much easier to purchase orange blossom water than orange blossom extract. Below, I share with you some information I have found with some links to look for more details :

What is orange blossom extract?

Pure Orange Blossom Extract is made from the finest Oil Neroli distilled from the white blossoms of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium). … It takes approximately 1000 lbs of the flowers to make just one pound of the essential oil. Pure Orange Blossom Extract can be used for wide range of baking applications.

Can I substitute orange blossom water for orange blossom extract?

The orange extract has a very similar taste to orange blossom water…. one teaspoon of orange blossom water replaces ½ teaspoon of orange extract, which is usually the correct proportion, although this can differ depending on the recipe you’re following so make sure to check.

Unlike pure orange extract, which is made from orange fruit, orange blossom water is made from the petals of the tree.

To learn more on orange blossom water, and it’s substitutes, please visit this site .