Mandarin Orange Sponge Cake

When the Lunar New Year is approaching, we will start to see different varieties of mandarin oranges 🍊in the supermarkets. It's a good time to bake some mandarin orange 🍊related new year goodies now. I began with a mild mandarin orange flavour light sponge cake for this season 🧡🥮

Video of the mandarin orange sponge cake 📹

Yield: 1 round cake

Pan size: 6x3" round pan

Oven type: oven with temperature surround feature

Baking temperature: Preheated oven to 160℃ switching on only the upper heating element, bake at lower rack at 160℃ for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 140℃ switching on both upper and lower heating coils, and bake for 30 minutes.

You may have to increase the baking temperature by 10℃ if you are using a normal oven.

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature

Using 55g Omega 3&6 eggs

40g rice bran oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

60g top/cake flour 

2g milk powder

30g mandarin orange juice

10g golden syrup/honey/condensed milk

5g mandarin orange rind, chopped finely

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites

1/8 tsp low-sodium salt

25g fine sugar

20g raw sugar/fine sugar

Directions

1. Line an 6" round cake pan with parchment paper at the base. Grease the wall of the pan with a very very thin coat of butter. Place a grid iron at the base of a 20cm square pan. Set aside.

I bought the grid iron from Daiso.

2. Wash the mandarin orange with vegetable wash before using it. This is to get rid of any chemical residue on the fruit skin.

Peel the orange skin and slice away the pith.

Chop about 5g of orange rind into fine bits. Set aside.

I use a garlic crusher to extract the mandarin orange juice. Collect about 30g of mandarin orange juice.

Combine 10g golden syrup, 30g mandarin orange juice, and 5g mandarin orange rind in a small glass. Set aside.

3. Mix top flour, and milk powder in a small bowl. Stir to loosen and mix. Set aside.

4. Warm rice bran oil at low temperature till reaching about 72~75℃.

Pour the top/cake flour mixture from Step 3 into the warm oil, mix briefly using a silicone spatula, and remove from the stove. Continue to fold until it becomes a smooth paste.

5. Mix in the mandarin orange juice mixture from Step 2.

6. Combine in the egg yolks, one at a time, and mix into a smooth batter. Set aside.

7. Beat egg whites in a clean, dry and grease-free bowl, till frothy. Add in low-sodium salt, and first batch of the fine and raw sugar mixture. Continue to beat the egg whites at high speed. Slowly add in the remaining sugar mixture in two batches.

Fresh eggs will give a smooth and glossy meringue, while  the egg whites of the "old" eggs will be more watery, so it's difficult to achieve nice smooth meringue

Stop beating after the meringue has achieved almost stiff peak stage.

The meringue is ready when it can stick to the mixing bowl well without slipping when being tilted.

8. Transfer about 1/4 of the meringue to combine with the yolk batter from Step 6.

Pour back the yolk batter to mix with the remaining meringue into a smooth batter.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bang the cake pan against the work top to level the batter and to get rid of trapped air bubbles.

Place the cake pan into the 20cm square pan, and fill the square pan with about 1cm deep of hot water.

10. Preheated oven to 160℃ switching on only the upper heating element, bake at lower rack at 160℃ for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 140℃ switching on both upper and lower heating coils, and bake for 30 minutes.

My Teka oven HLB840 has a temperature surround  feature. You may have to increase the baking temperature by 10℃ if you are using a normal oven.

11. Remove the cake from the oven. Drop the cake with the pan from a height of about 10 cm to a kitchen towel thrice. Let the cake cool down for about 20 to 25 minutes in the pan.

When the cake starts to pull away from the wall of the pan, jiggle to loosen the cake, and turn it out to a cooling rack

You may want to dry the cake in a warm oven for about 15 minutes.

Cut and enjoy 😋😋