mmmmm . . . . it's hard to talk with your mouth full of cake . . .

My friend Lura, lives in California. It's really warm where she lives, and she and her husband have a wonderful orchard full of lots of citrus fruit . . . like pomelo's, lemons, grapefruits, kumquats and oranges! I have always wondered what it would be like to just walk out your door and be able to pick an orange or a lemon when you need one. It must be lovely, and I can only imagine how wonderful it must smell when they are in blossom!!!

I tried to grow a lemon tree once, using some seeds from a lemon. It didn't work very well, but then, I have a notoriously black thumb. Then again, that's another story. You are probably sitting there thinking . . . why all the talk about oranges and lemons and orchards . . .

Welcome to Tuesday's With Dorie, that wonderful baking group that gets together once a week and bakes a delicious recipe from that equally as delicious baking book, "Baking, from my home to yours," by the most bakingest authoress around . . . the lovely Dorie Greenspan!



This week's recipe was the French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze on pages 224-225, as chosen by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. Liliana, what a fabulous choice!

This is a beautiful cake and sooooooooooo easy to make! You can whip it together in no time at all, using very little equipment and with very little effort. You basically just whisk the dry ingredients together and whisk the sugar and wet ingredients together and then bang the whole lot together! Well . . . kinda. You do have to fold in the oil at the end, but easy peasy. My favourite part is rubbing the zest into the sugar. What a beautiful smell! I think they ought to bottle that and sell it. They'd make a million on it!



One of the things I loved most about this recipe was the fact that, after you had the cake baked, there was lots of room for playing around. I decided that I would do an orange version of it and so used orange zest and a touch of orange oil in the actual cake batter. I also added a hint of ground cardamon. Oh my, but did it smell wonderful when it was baking!! (You could also bake it in either a loaf tin or a round tin. Me, I'm a round cake kind of a gal!)

Once the layer was completely cooled the fun started. I had a think and decided to cut my layer in half through the middle horizontally. I can draw anything under the sun. I can sew and make beautiful dresses and other things. I can make dolls, teddy bears, and sock monkeys . . . I can do all sorts . . . but . . . believe it or not, I cannot draw or cut in a straight line. I am almost ashamed to show you this . . .




Yes, it is a layer cake that looks completely even on the outside, but when you get to the inside . . . well . . . the picture speaks for itself! You can well imagine the haircuts my children used to go to school with when they were young enough to trust me with a pair of scissors around their hair . . . oy vey!!! I once had a barber tell my son not to let his mother near his head with the scissors again . . . the shame, the shame . . .




I filled my cake with layers of orange curd and vanilla butter cream. I glazed it with some melted orange marmelade. YUMMO! This was a hit! We had company at the weekend and had suffered through an awful dry Victorian Sponge at a tea room on Saturday afternoon, so this cake was a real treat for all of us! It made the memory of that awful Victorian sponge even more awful. There was just no comparison.



But then . . . a picture says a thousand words. Don't take my word for it though . . . hop on over to Liliana's page , scoop the recipe, and make it for yourself! You will adore this cake. I guarantee!



Please do take a look at all the other lovely versions baked by the other members as well, by taking a gander at the Dorie Blog Roll. There are sure to be some incredible versions from this very talented group of bakers! Thanks Liliana for choosing a wonderful recipe for us to bake!

Next week's recipe is the Blueberry Crumb Cake on pages 192-193, as chosen by Sihan of Befuddlement. Oh goodie, goodie. I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!