Piece of cake - my moist orange/cranberry feast

Dear Readers I must admit that sometimes I try to be careful about what I eat. 
Like most young women, I'm a little self conscious about calories in food and I usually skip dessert when I am at a restaurant (all the more so as I certainly DON'T skip the wine !)
Only if I'm really starving or invited at a friends'house do I have a bite of dessert but I obviously feel so guilty the following morning that I immediately hit the gym for a week.
Sometimes it sucks to be a woman. 
Sometimes I wish I could gulp down waffles without putting on a pound. 


And then there's the perfect cake. 
The cake I always indulge in, because : 
1) I made it and I know it is not THAT ridiculously fattening
2) It is insanely moist and good and delicious so I just couldn't care less about the calories anyway. 


This is my secret weapon against crappy weeks and low spirits. It's a cake that will stay moist and soft for a week (although to tell you the truth I never actually got to verify this because it's always finished after a day).
And it is so easy you just can't get it wrong. It's almost magic. 
This cake should seriously be taught in school. 


Go ahead, bake it and tell me what you think, I'm interested ! 

The ultimate Moist Orange Cranberry cake

Ingredients

190 g all-purpose flour
3 g baking soda
2 g baking powder
120 g vanilla sugar
55 ml orange juice
1-1/3 eggs
160 ml buttermilk
120 ml vegetable oil
175 g fresh cranberries
8 g grated orange zest


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a tube pan.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup the vanilla sugar, the orange juice, the eggs, the buttermilk, and the vegetable oil using an electric mixer. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. If you judge the mixture is too moist, add a little bit of flour.

3. Fold in the cranberries and orange zest. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

4. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on your oven) until a knife inserted into the crown of the cake comes out clean.



Notes:

Regarding the egg, I know it sucks to have 1 egg and 1/3 but it really makes a perfect mixture whereas only 1 egg makes it too hard and 2 eggs to moist.

If you don't have buttermilk you can always make some yourself : place one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in a one cup measure. Fill to one cup mark with regular milk and let sit for five minutes.

As for your wine pairing,

cranberry wine could of course do the trick.
You may also go for champagne or white dry wine like Riesling. The lime and acidity will perfectly counterbalance the tartness of the cranberry.
 

The Loire's sweethearts

Most people don't really enjoy dessert wines.

They think they are too sweet, too heavy, too powerful. And a part from foie gras nobody really knows what to pair them with.

So they usually end up being stacked in a cellar, waiting for New Years Eve or at least for you to let go of your diet for one evening.

Yet I think this is a grave mistake.

Dessert wines in spite of their ridiculous name, should not only be kept for dessert. They can magnify a whole meal if you accept to let go of your cultural prejudices.

Dessert wines contain a high level of sugar and alcohol. This characteristic comes from the fact that they are made from mouldy grapes.

I know this does not sound very appetizing.

Yet in fact this mould is not just any mould: it is a noble mould, called Botrytis Cinerea, also dubbed "noble rot".

Wine makers can really be poets.

This idiosyncrasy is only possible when the weather is sufficiently moist during the autumn.

Therefore only a few regions in the world have the adequate climate to produce dessert wines.

In France, Sauternes, in the Bordeaux region is the most famous of them all. Just check out the price of a bottle of Château d'Yquem.

But there is also great noble rot wines in Alsace (some Gewürztraminer for example) or, as my main title suggests it, in the Loire Valley.

Chenin, (the Loire's main white grape) is the variety that produces these great dessert wines. There are 3 dessert wines in the Loire Valley:

- Coteaux-du-Layon

- Bonnezeaux

- Quart de Chaume

As they are much less known then their counterparts from Sauternes, these amazing wines also have the great advantage of being much cheaper.

But this is not their only asset! Also their general acidity (typical of Chenin) gives them the ability to age easily and provides them with an overall impression of aerial lightness which is a plus when you want to pair them with non dessert foods.

So you see these wines are magical with the appropriate pairing.

For instance, try to taste a Coteaux-du-Layon with a veal medallion and mushroom sauce.

Or dare and pair a Bonnezeaux with an Orange glazed duck.

Prunes or raisins go well with these wines too. Try it out, you'll be surprised.

Anything with a little honey, dried fruits or foie gras will do the trick.

It's not very complicated and I assure you having one of those at your table will make a huge difference.

Here is a Coteaux-du-Layon I tasted last week and paired with chicken stuffed with dried prunes. It was absolutely delicious.

Coteaux-du-Layon, Saint Lambert du Lattay, 2005

Michel Robineau

Selection grains nobles

Nose: very subtle, fresh peonies, apricot

Mouth: an explosion. Dried apricot, honey, a very well balanced acidity and a round attack. Very long lasting taste.

This wine is just a drop of gold diluted in your veins. It's powerful yet soft, fragrant yet delicate, sweet yet elegant. Overall you really feel there's something different about this wine, something noble and pure.