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Hello, my Insiders!
There are some things I cook that feel less like recipes and more like memories, and today’s feature is one of those for me. Orange cake is exactly the kind of thing that brings me straight back to childhood lunchboxes: simple, dependable and made with everyday ingredients you’re likely to already have on hand. Tweaking these recipes for my steam oven has become a natural part of my cooking life and I love sharing these ‘old’ recipes with updated (better) methods.
I’ve always had a soft spot for nostalgic cakes like this. They’re the recipes that don’t try too hard, but they show love and care straight from the kitchen. In an age of packaged snack products (to which my house, and my kids’ lunchboxes, are not immune!), simple homemade cakes have become a bit of a rarity and I want more of us to bake them.
There are a couple of other cake-related favourites in From the Archives if you’d like to keep baking, including a deep dive into gluten free baking that’ll help you convert your gluten-y cake recipes into something more people can enjoy. And in A Thing I’m Loving I’m talking about a dangerous recent discovery that I’m desperate to add to my appliance line-up.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you in mid May!
Emily x
New to Cook
My Mum’s Classic Orange Cake
This classic orange butter cake is a proper nostalgic bake for me, with all the comforting simplicity of the cakes I used to find in my school lunchbox. It’s soft, citrusy, and beautifully straightforward, with a bright orange flavour that makes it feel cheerful without being fussy.
It’s the kind of cake that works for afternoon tea, lunchboxes, or a simple dessert with a cup of tea, and it keeps well too, which is probably why Mum used to make one and put it in our lunchboxes all week! I love recipes like this because they feel both personal and universal at the same time.https://steamandbake.com/my-mums-easy-orange-cake/
From the Archives:
If you’re in the mood for more cake, these older Insiders shares are worth a look:
Steam Oven Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake: A rich, reliable chocolate cake that’s a great option when you want something deeply satisfying and gluten free. It’s such a great cake that the gluten-eaters in your life will never know it’s GF (just as it should be).
Gluten-Free Cakes and Bakes in a Steam Oven: Not a recipe, but a collection of very useful tips and info if you’re baking for gluten-free eaters, and you want to use your steam oven to do so. I’ve adapted many baked goods using these principles, and the excellent GF flour mix linked from the article is still a go-to in my house.
Apple Crumb Cake with Cinnamon: Soft cake, spiced apple, and a lovely crumb topping — this one is especially good with a hot drink.
A Thing I'm Loving
I may be in trouble here – I went to a friend’s house for dinner last week and they made pizza in their new Gozney oven, and now I can’t stop thinking about it.
It was one of those experiences where you instantly understand the appeal: the heat, the speed, the blistered crusts, the whole thing just felt a little bit magical. We make pizzas frequently here, and they’re pretty good, but the highest heat and a very good baking stone in my indoor oven is still no match for a dedicated outdoor oven.
I’m now at the stage where I keep mentally fitting a Gozney into my cooking appliance lineup. This is extra dangerous because I am off to my favorite appliance store next week to choose an entire suite of new kitchen and laundry appliances for our renovation (more on this in future Insiders issues)! I wonder if perhaps they can just add a Gozney to our order; surely with that many items we won’t notice one little extra oven?! Ha.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
The AMA format has changed, but I still want your questions! This is your best opportunity to ask me anything you like about steam oven cooking.
I’ll continue to answer some AMA questions via email, but my goal is to respond to more of them as articles on the Steam & Bake website. This makes the answers easier to search and refer back to if the same questions come up again. Whenever a new article is published in response to an AMA question, I’ll let you know here in our Insiders journals.
If you have a question, big or small, please email it to [email protected]. Be sure to include INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can easily collect and review all submissions.