Orange Vanilla Cake [Egg-less]

It has been a while since I baked cakes and the moment I saw this post by Divya, I knew this was the one. I had a lone orange sitting in my fridge and I have been nursing a craving for a cake for a few days now.! My all time favourite is the Eggless Vanilla Tea cake and this time I thought, I should re-do it by adding in the orange zest into the batter.

So, here is the result of converting Divya's Orange Yogurt cake into an eggless version. I am pretty delighted with the output, except for the slightly crumbly texture. Oh well, am still learning... will try and fix that next time... for now am munching on these orangey goodies :)

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida - 1.5 cups 

Thick Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup

Orange Zest - 1 orange's 

Sugar - 3/4 cup 

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Baking powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp

Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup 

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp 

Walnuts - 1/2 cup, chopped

For the Orange Glaze 

Orange juice - 1/2 cup

Powdered Sugar - 1 tbsp

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 170 deg.
• Line a loaf tin with butter paper and keep ready.
• In a small bowl, mix well the orange zest and sugar until you get a nice orange crumbled sugary mixture. Keep aside.
• In another mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt and walnuts. Keep aside.

• Take curd in a bigger mixing bowl and add in the orange zest-sugar mixture and mix well until sugar dissolves.
• Add in the Baking soda and Baking powder and mix well. In about 2 minutes, tiny bubbles appear on top.
• Now, add in the vanilla essence and oil to the mixture and combine well.
• Slowly, in batches, add in the flour and fold in the mixture until no more dry flour is seen and you get a thick cake batter.

•  Pour in this batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

• Take off the loaf and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Now, remove the cake from the butter paper and then put the cake back into the cake tray.
• Meanwhile prepare the orange glaze by mixing together the powdered sugar and orange juice.

• Pour this orange glaze on top of the cake loaf and allow it to sit in the tin for about 20 minutes until completely cooled.
• Now, slice it into pieces and enjoy the delicious cake :)