Orange Walnuts Loaf Cake

It is quite a while since I ever baked anything and I felt like baking this weekend. When I was writing my previous post, I realized that today is the last date for the Tried and Tasted Event for Aipi's US Masala. Ooops.. time really runs very fast, at least faster than me!! Sigh sigh... I had bookmarked a lot many recipes from her blog, but didn't really try out everything. So, I decided to bake something from her blog. But what?? As I browsed through, wowww - the gorgeous Orange Olive Loaf Cake just made the pupils of my eyes widen... this is it!!

I bought some oranges from the Kleinmarkthalle. I was thinking of what to substitute for the egg. Once I had tried a loaf cake with silken Tofu and it was quite a success. Silken Tofu gives the cake a moist, heavy and soft texture. Anyways, I decided to experiment again with it. With lots of hope and the other ingredients ready, I just started mixing up the dry ingredients. Suddenly, we remembered we were planning to attend an event today and we just could not postpone it. So, I got ready and we went out. I was quite saddened that my baking prospect had to be abandoned.

Somehow, we managed to return early in the evening :-) Though very tired, I happily continued with my baking. The result is what you see here. The sun didn't wait for me and it has set. So, I could only photograph it under our electric lamp.

The original recipe can be found here. The following are the changes I made:

• Instead of the 1 egg in the recipe, I used 1/4 cup of silken Tofu. I whisked it along with the sugar.
• I added a handful of chopped walnuts - something crunchy in the soft cake. It turned out to be a great idea.
• I had no corn starch in hand. So, used 1/4 cup more all purpose flour.

Do I need to say how it tasted?? Even while baking, the kitchen was filled with a warm orange aroma and I just couldn't wait for the cake to get baked and then cool down. When I tasted the first piece, it just melted in my mouth. It was so soft and very light indeed. I mean, it was not as heavy as I imagined. My husband easily made three pieces vanish at once. The softness along with the walnuts was heavenly. The Tofu has proved to be a reliable winner once again. You see, it is just a pleasure, to see your efforts yield good results.

Heartfelt thanks to Aipi for the wonderful recipe. I'm sending this to Priya's Tried and Tasted for Feb, 2011, owned by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles and originally started by Zlamushka.