Making everything for the first time
This is my absolute, most favorite chicken dish ever! It’s one of the first things I cooked when I was just starting to learn a year ago. I was so proud of myself because I managed to produce something edible that does not involve a can.
I pretty much stayed loyal to Steamy Kitchen’s recipe because I was not confident enough to change anything. Although I used red instead of white wine due to the latter’s unavailability, it still tasted good.
I served this to my friends when we had a poolside potluck dinner along with cherry-centred lemon muffins sometime last September 2010. I miss making it and another friend suggested that I should cook it again soon for our weekly get-togethers. This made me dig up this photo from my archive as I took it after my first try before I even started The Virgin Stove.
So, for those who like Chinese food and orange chicken, here’s Steamy Kitchen’s lovely recipe.
NOTE: I will not classify this as a disaster since the cake tasted great overall. However, the frosting was not blended properly. It should have been smoother. Will not make this mistake again in the future.
For Mom’s 50th birthday, I couldn’t think of a nice cake to bake. We’re all a bit tired of the standard chocolate. I thought about dimply plum cake, then a plum pie, but decided that I’m not in the mood for pie. The reason why I didn’t ask Mom what she wanted is because she’s far, far away in the Philippines with the rest of the kiddies while Dad and I are in Riyadh. But we still celebrate each other’s birthdays as if we’re geographically together. 🙂
Just before I slept last night, I settled on orange chocolate cake.
When I woke up this morning, Dad laid a big glass of fresh orange juice on my desk. I instantly panicked.
“Oh. My. God. Did you throw the orange rinds away?!”
“No, they’re on a bowl. I haven’t cleaned up yet. Why?” 
“I’m making cake!”
I instantly went to work with the small grater, making sure there wasn’t a smidgen of zest left in those rinds. For the nth time, I wished I had a microplane zester/grater because the grater just isn’t very hand-friendly, especially if one needs a lot of zest.
I stayed faithful to Smitten Kitchen’s recipe and did just as she instructed because I didn’t want this cake to fail. (I had no oranges left for a second cake.) But since I had no chocolate chips, I skipped that part. And because I keep on forgetting to buy a bundt pan, I used a rectangular teflon-coated. I also used a different recipe for the ganache.
The smell of the cake while it was baking was heavenly and the kitchen was infused with a warm citrus scent. The result was a light orange, springy, moist cake with a rich flavor. Yum! The ganache was ever so slightly lumpy with teeny-tiny dots of cocoa (my fault… didn’t mix it enough) but it was still very delicious.
Or at least I thought it was delicious. This…
… quickly turned into this.
(Clearly, judging from the lower-right photo, Dad agreed with me.)
We called Mom on Skype, wished her a loud happy birthday and showed her the long-distance birthday cake which we promised to eat in her honor.
Hi, I'm Steffi. I'm a 30-something who's learning how to cook. Or trying to at least. This blog is a chronicle of my progress and a way of sharing recipes that I like to everyone. (And try not to visit the Stonehenge just after winter. They might run out of picnic blankets to wrap around you.)
The Virgin Stove 