Cranberry Orange Butter Cake

We are well pampered by the modern kitchen technology that we have almost forgotten how to handmade a cake  without a mixer, be it the high-end stand mixer, or the humble electric hand-held mixer. Frankly speaking, I can't whip meringue without an electric mixer >< This means I can't bake most of my cake recipes with bare hands. 

Fortunately, there's still one recipe which I have been  trying my best to prepare without the electric mixer - the simple butter cake. All I need is a hand whisk, a spatula, and a few rests to get my batter done. The velvety fine crumb is the best payout of my arm effort ^^

Yield: One 20Lx10Wx6.5H cm cake

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature.

Using 55g eggs

110g top/cake flour

15g milk powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

110g unsalted butter, softened

110g fine sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 tbsp golden syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

20g orange juice

5g candied orange peel

10g dried cranberries

Click the recipe link on making of candied orange peel:

http://mymindpatch.blogspot.sg/2016/02/candied-mandarin-peel.html

Directions

1. Grease the loaf pan with a good amount of butter.

From my experience, if the cake can glide up smoothly during baking, the cake would be less likely to develop a long deep crack in the middle of the cake.

2. Mix cake flour, milk powder and baking powder together in a bowl.

3. Cut candied orange peel into bit size, and soak in the 20g of orange juice. Set aside.

4. Cut dried cranberries into bit size, and coat with a little flour. Set aside.

5. Beat eggs together and set aside.

6. Cream butter, sugar and salt together till light and fluffy.

7. Gradually blend in the beaten egg to the batter. Add in small quantity after each mixing.

8. Sieve in the flour mixture from (2) into the batter and mix briefly. 

Try not to over mix the flour.

9. Mix in the golden syrup, vanilla extract, and the orange mixture from (3).

10. Use a spatula to give a more through mixing. Finally, mix in the dried cranberries from (4).

11. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Lightly bang the loaf pan to even out the batter.

Place the loaf pan over a small baking tray.

12. Bake in the oven lowest rack at 160 degree Celsius for about 45 to 50 minutes, or till an inserted cake tester draws out clean.

13. Let the cake stay in the cake mould for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Invert out the cake and let it cool on the wire rack. I covered the cake loosely with a sheet of paper kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out.

14. Slice and enjoy :)