No-bake Orange Cheesecake

I seem to get a craving for Cheesecake when I’m away at my parent’s bach (that’s what we call a holiday home here in NZ).  Maybe it’s because it is my Mum’s place and she makes amazing cheesecakes.  Who knows?  Last time I was there, I invented a delicious Mint Chocolate Cheesecake.  This time around I was craving the flavours of orange mixed with dark chocolate (If you ever feel like those two flavours, I seriously recommend making some Choc Orange Fudge!) so I played around and came up with this little number.

Ingredients:
200g biscuits (I used Farmbake’s Chocolate Chip Fudge variety)
125g butter, melted
250g cream cheese
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
3 teaspoons Cointreau
3 teaspoons yellow food colouring
1 teaspoon red food colouring
4 teaspoons orange essence
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon gelatine
2 teaspoons orange juice
1 block Lindt intense orange chocolate

Method:
Crush the biscuits up in a food processor until they are a fine crumb.  Mix through the melted butter.  Press the biscuit mix into a 20cm round spring-form tin, then chill.  Whip the cream until it holds its shape, then refrigerate.
Beat together the cream cheese and the caster sugar with an electric mixer.  Mix through the orange zest, Cointreau, food colouring and essences. 
Heat the orange juice in a microwave for 10 - 20 seconds, until hot.  Sprinkle the gelatine over the hot juice and then stir to dissolve.  Add the gelatine mixture to the cream cheese mixture and beat the mixture again.  Fold through the whipped cream.  Refrigerate for 4-6 hours or until set.
To decorate, grate the orange chocolate and sprinkle over the cheesecake.  You could also add squares of the chocolate and slices of orange to each segment of the cheesecake before serving.

Orange and Coconut Cake

Winter has been in full swing over the last week or so and I have been feeling a bit under the weather and craving a boost of vitamin c, this cake was the answer! It is light, moist, delicious and reminds me of summer.

Ingredients:
Cake
125g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of one orange
The juice of one orange (4-5 tablespoons)
125g sour cream
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut

Glaze
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3-5 tablespoons hot water
1-11/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm to square cake tin.
Cream together butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add orange zest and sour cream and mix until combined.
Fold in the flour and coconut.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until your cake is a light golden colour and you can insert a skewer and remove it cleanly.
Once cooked remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once cool, pour glaze onto the centre of the cake and use the back of a spoon to move it towards the edges.
To make the glaze place butter, 3 tablespoons of hot water, 1 cup of icing sugar and orange juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. To thicken your glaze add more icing sugar or to thin use a little more hot water.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I have, I am sure this is one I will make again and again. This cake is good on its own but can be served with some thick vanilla yoghurt or cream on the side. Also, if you are like me and can’t wait to dig in this cake is amazing warm!

Orange and White Chocolate Cookies

aka ‘Orange Creamsicle Cookies’. I was googling for some summery cookie recipes and orange creamsicle cookies showed up a few times so I investigated further, turns out orange creamicles are a type of ice block – you don’t get much more summery than cookies inspired by and ice blocks! After reading through a few recipes I came up the recipe I’m going to share with you today, they are seriously delish and the touch of orange is summer in a cookie. The other thing to mention about these cookies is that they are ‘drop cookies’, so no rolling and flattening required. Easy!

Ingredients:
200grams butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
zest of one average sized Orange
1 ½ cups white chocolate bits

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line two baking trays with wax baking paper.
In the bowl of your electric mixer mix butter and two sugars until light and fluffy.
Place egg and vanilla into your butter mix and mix on a medium to high speed until combined.
Sift in flour, baking soda and salt. Mix on a low-medium speed until dry ingredients are just combined.
Add orange zest and white chocolate and stir through to ensure even distribution.
Drop rounded tablespoons of mixture onto your lined baking trays and place in your pre-heated oven.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until they are starting to become golden, remove from oven, leave cookies on the trays for a couple of minutes before placing them on cooling racks.
Store in an airtight container.

Orange Cupcakes

These are a light fluffy cupcake with a punch of orange.  Just delicious heading into Summer!

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cup flour
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs, separated and whites beaten until stiff
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup orange juice
100g butter, softened

Icing:
1 ½ cups icing sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
3 tablespoons soft butter
2-3 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease, or line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cups.
Combine butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and cream together thoroughly.
Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a separate mixing bowl.  Add dry ingredients to creamed ingredients ⅓ at a time  alternating with adding portions of the orange juice to the creamed mixture.
Fold in beaten egg whites.  Spoon batter into cupcake holes until ½ full.
Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool cupcakes completely before frosting with orange icing (see below).

To make the icing, mix all the ingredients together starting with only 2 tablespoons of the orange juice.  If frosting is too thick then add the additional tablespoon of orange juice.

Cupcake toppers c/o Wink.

Orange Chocolate Fudge

This fudge is amazing.  Seriously, go get yourself the ingredients and make some now.
I was driving home form work the other day when the thought of a dark chocolate orange fudge popped in my head.  As soon as I got home I set to work; this was one idea that wasn’t going to leave me alone.  The first batch I made was very sticky, but tasted amazing.  It was too hard to cut up so Simon turned it into truffles, by rolling it into balls and coating them with cocoa powder.  Heavenly.  (If you want to make the truffles, use 100g less of the chocolate and omit the icing sugar.)
I tried making the fudge again, but added more chocolate and some icing sugar.  The result was perfect; a nice soft fudge that could be cut and would hold its shape.  I think this fudge has just the right combination of dark chocolate and orange flavour.  The candied orange peel makes it something extra special.

Ingredients:
475g dark chocolate melts
395g condensed milk
½ cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
finely grated zest of 1 ½ oranges

Candied orange peel:
Skin of ½ an orange
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Method:
Grease and line a 20 cm square baking tin.
Cut or peel the skin off half an orange, then cut into thin strips.  In a small saucepan add the sugar and water and stir over a medium heat until boiling.  Add the orange peel and boil for 10 – 15 minutes.  The peel should become translucent.  Drain and taste test the peel; if it is still bitter repeat the boiling process again.
Stir the chocolate into the condensed milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until melted.  Mix in the icing sugar until it has dissolved.  Add the orange juice and zest, and stir the fudge for 5 minutes over a low heat.  Pour into the prepared tin.  Leave to set for a few minutes, then sprinkle the candied orange peel over the top.  Place in the refrigerator to set.  Cut into squares and serve.

Gluten Free Orange Cake

This cake has a very strong orange flavour.  It goes great with ice cream or custard.  The cake uses almond meal instead flour making it gluten free.

2 oranges
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
3 cups almond meal
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

Orange Syrup:
1 orange
¾ cup caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C.  Grease and line a round 22cm round springform tin with butter and baking paper.

Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender, then drain.  Return to pan and repeat the process.  Refresh under cold water, and drain.  Coarsely chop the oranges, removing and discarding any seeds.
Place the orange (skin included) in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.

Use an electric beater to whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick and pale.  Add the orange, almond meal and baking powder and gently fold until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for one hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes to cool.

Meanwhile, to make the orange syrup, use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind from orange.  Cut the rind into thin strips (see our candied lemon peel post for more info).  Juice the orange.
Place the rind in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until soft.  Drain.  Return to the pan with the orange juice and sugar. Place over a low heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.

Turn cake onto a serving plate.  Use a skewer to gently prick the top, then spoon over syrup before serving.

Orange Drop Cookies

These Orange Drop Cookies are just beautiful, like little kisses of summer.  They are a delicious soft shortbread with a subtle orange flavour.  The first batch I made were gone in a few hours, before I could get a photo for this post, so I made some more the next morning!

Makes approx. 24 biscuits

1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup almond meal
90g butter, at room temperature
½ cup caster sugar
Grated zest 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl, then stir in the almond meal.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with electric beaters until thick and pale.  Beat in the zest, vanilla and 1 egg, then stir in the flour mixture until well combined.
Roll the dough into small balls (about 24).  Place each ball on the baking tray and pinch the tops twice to form a peak.
Beat the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water, then use to lightly glaze the biscuits.
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until the biscuits are firm to touch but are still pale.
Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  Dust with the icing sugar.
Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Orange Cake

 
While I was away over the weekend I had a gorgeous warm orange pudding for dessert, it was divine and reminded me that our friend Natalie (yes, the same Natalie that shared that fantastic brownie recipe) had given me a recipe for a beautifully moist orange cake and it is too good for me to not share with you!

250g butter
1 ½ cups caster sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoon grated orange zest
Juice of 2 oranges
2 cups self raising flour

You will need a 20cm cake tin and to pre-heat your oven to 180˚C.
1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add the zest and beat in a third of the orange juice, then a third of the flour and repeat with remaining juice and flour.
4. Pour into tin and bake for an hour.

To ice I mixed 20g of softened butter with a quarter cup of icing sugar and then started mixing in the juice of one orange and icing sugar alternately until I had an amount and consistency I was happy with.

BTW – it is fantastic warm or cold! Enjoy :-)