Essence of Orange-Chocolate Wafer Cake THB#17

Once again, I'm late for the posting for The Home Bakers. Our fellow baker, Eileen has chosen this bake for our 17th bake together. Having said that, I won't be posting up any recipe but do check out Eileen's website for the recipe if you are keen.


We had been discussing about this recipe before we attempted it or at least those who have already attempted it would give the rest of us some tips. This time round, we were pretty amused by the fact that the whole orange needs to be blended together with the raisins which obviously excluded the seeds but the whole orange skin needs to be in. I was also particular about the pesticide that fruits or vegetables have so I gave it a good wash using the fruit/vegetable wash we had. I figured it was clean enough to go into the blender with the raisins.

Just as I was blending the orange/raisin mixture, I realised the blender was stuck so at that point of time, I figured that I should have used some hot water to soak the raisins to make them softer (oh well). The blender only just managed to blend the orange/raisin mixture to smaller pieces and then I gave up and took out the chopper. Yeah, this is what happens when you have one too many kitchen appliances that fill the whole kitchen @@

When the chopper did such a brilliant job, I was almost hitting my head as if to say, why did I not think of using the chopper in the first place?! Geez, I'm sure if I did, I wouldn't have to wash/clean both the blender and chopper arggghhh hahahaha Yes, where possible, I try to clean or wash little bowls, utensils, etc while baking. That eases the pain a little. ;P

See the finely blended/chopped orange/raisin mixture. FINALLY!!! Erm, if you are wondering why it's so 'black', it's because I simply refuse to buy golden raisins when I have raisins at home.

After creaming the butter and sugar together, I added the eggs one by one and made sure they were well creamed together before adding the orange/raisin mixture (see below).

Obviously when I came to this stage, it was hard to take pictures. Why? Imagine 3 portions of your flour mixture alternated with your buttermilk mixture with the flour flying around @@ Ok, not trying to explain but well, I thought I better mention just in case.

Psst, did I tell you how I love to use this buttermilk mixture instead of buying buttermilk? I used 3/4 cup yoghurt with 1/4 cup milk mixture as per Joy's measurement. I used to use the lemon juice mixed with milk but I thought the yoghurt/milk mixture tasted even better on cakes - making them even more moist and soft.

And then I decided to make them into easier bites like muffins. For some odd reason, I feel that baking cakes into muffins or cupcakes seem to make them more palatable. Maybe this could be because of the fact that they are cuter and also, easier to be in a one-portion size.

Before they go into the oven...

I love how they looked so pretty with the chocolate chips sprinkled all on top. Yeah, it was hard to find chocolate wafers so I thought bigger chocolate chips will do just fine.

Look at how these orange-chocolate muffin babies turn out :) I love them!

I couldn't wait till they turn cold so whilst warm, I tried them. They are soft and moist and definitely not dry. The oozing chocolate gave them a bittersweet aftertaste which is what I like for my bakes. Do check out what my other fellow bakers have done here.

Incidentally, I'm also submitting this post for April's Tea Time Treats which has been created by Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked.