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My first experience of eating an orange dessert was of an orange cheesecake, made by my mother’s friend. I had never tasted something as exquisite. Many years later when I tried my hand at orange based desserts, it just didn’t cut it. No amount of zest or juice or Nagpur oranges would bring that memory to the fore.
Still, I was keen to discover the secret to all things orange. On this mission, I purchased every citrus fruit available to mankind. Zesting, juicing and tasting away, I went through many grapefruits (yum), pomelo (bitter zest, not enough juice), kaffir limes (too savoury to be used in dessert imo), Malta (delicious but boring in dessert), lemons (do you even have to ask?) and what not.
I compulsively ordered every citrus dessert wherever I went, only to be disappointed with synthetic lemon essence. Every single time. Not to mention the cornflour-y eggless “lemon curd” (gag).
Little did I know, that the jewel had been in my robe all this while. I am talking about kinoo. We are big on cold pressed kinoo juice at home and there’s always a kilo or two of ripe kinoo lazing around in the kitchen. Winter mornings invariably meant the beautiful fragrance of oranges wafting through, tempting me to have a tall glass of the sweet, glycemic-index-spiking beverage.
The day that I zested kinoo into the cake batter was a fine day. It was the day I knew I’d discovered something amazing. Nobody was using it back then and just like many flavours on our menu (ahem), we were the first to put kinoo on the dessert map of India.
The first thing I ever made was a Vegan Olive Oil Citrus Cake - a special cake we make for events only, to this very day.
Each orange is unique (thankfully so, no GMO stuff for me please) and there is an art to using it, making each part of the fruit add value to the final product. This uniqueness might create a slight variable despite using the same recipe. And that just means you’re eating something that's one of a kind, something you probably won’t come across again.
I enjoy the process of going to the mandi, hand–picking each fruit that goes into Baked Love dessert. Some days I find a kilo only, other days maybe ten. I come back, though, only with what I am able to serve to you with full conviction. It is a back–breaking, rigorous process. Appears quite poetic in photos, videos. Add a dreamy score in the background and voila, it will awaken the chef in even those who don’t know how to turn the stove on.
Controversial opinion: two spoons of orange juice in the batter is not going to add any flavour to the cake, once baked. There is much easier stuff you can do if you’re a real Citrus Hero.
Always up for a discussion on cakes, DM me.
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