Mak's 'simple' cake recipe

I recently baked a cake for al adha celebration (in addition to the oxtail soup) and brought it to the office to share with collegues. It was Mak's recipe, with no specific name, and we usually called it simple orange cake. I once baked it for thirah's nanny and wrote about it in this entry, but no recipe attached (Ani the nanny are now safely back in her home town, Lombok, Bali....we sent her off last Sunday, so sad and mandom watching the family leave).

The cake was one of the qualifying cooking evaluation that Mak had tested on me (ala kira pass masak utk survive laaaa). Mak is particular when it comes to cooking and cleaning. I remember in my adolescence years, everytime when Mak started cooking in the kitchen, she would called out to me to help her, eventhough I was in the middle of my school work, or practicing the organ. No compromise. Sometimes it did got irritating, and many times I walked into the kitchen with the long face and stomping my feet, showing resentment. And Mak would always said this in response, "Mak buat nie is for your own good" (her exact word). Mak was actually trained that way by her mother (my grandma) when she was young, far younger than me when I started training by Mak (and only using the 'dapur kayu').

But soon I get used to it, and it taught me a lot about discipline and at the same time I learnt to cook. It was hard at first (hard when you not agreeing to it that kinda feeling), but I never regret it. In fact, I will do the same way with my daughters.

Ok back to the purpose of this entry. One of my best bud requested the recipe. And am delighted to share with you the recipe.

Mak's simple cake:

Ingredients:
6 oz of butter
6 oz of caster sugar
6 oz of self-rising flour
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional. couldn't find non-alcohol essence in Brisbane)
1 orange (squeeze the juice and strained. 'sagat' the orange skin for frangrant, sikit udah) as
alternative, you can use about 1-2 tbs of orange juice (agak2 la ye)

Method:
1. Beat the sugar and butter until soft.
2. Break 1 egg, and beat softly. Then break another egg and beat softly. Repeat this
until all eggs are gone.
3. Then pour in the orange juice and the orang skin and the essence.
4. Mix in the flour, a little by little (and make sure you are mixing it in one way, and always anti- clockwise)
5. Forgot to mention, you need to preheat the oven (eheheheh).
6. Baked for 1 hour (it depends on your setting). I set my oven at 180deg, fan-forced.
7. After 1 hour is up, test the cake by inserting a butter knife in the middle of the cake. If the knife come up clean, than the cake is cook.
8. Let it cool down a bit...and then.... apa lagi..makan laa (I like to eat it while it is hot).


(gambar recycle)

Yummy...

p/s: Saya aritu guna 1 block of butter, which is 250gm. 250gm = 8 oz. Timbang gula n tepung sama ngan sukatan butter. Telur tu kurang kan 2 biji (8 oz butter = 6 biji telur).