Author Notes
Yesterday when I was preparing orange cake the idea of adding fennel striked. Initially, I had planned to pair fennel with some other fruit and come up with a recipe. Even strawberry goes really well with the flavor of fennel. And, also rhubarb is in season so I would have to say try it with rhubarb as well. You never know you might like it. This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa orange cake. —Devangi Raval
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Ingredients
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3 cups All purpose flour
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1/2 Tsp Baking powder
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1/2 Tsp Baking soda
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1 Tsp Salt
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4 Eggs at Room temperature
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2 sticks Butter at room temperature
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2 cups of Sugar
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1/4 cup or just a little more Freshly squeezed juice of orange
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3/4 cup Buttermilk
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Dash
Vanilla or licorice flavor of your choice
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Teaspoon
3 Tsp Or more of fennel powder ( ground fennel)
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11/2 cups of confectioner sugar
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5 Tbsp of Orange juice
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Fennel Pollen for garnish
Directions
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Cream the butter and sugar in a kitchen aid mixer for about 2 to 3 minutes. Then add eggs gradually one by one. Add one egg at a time. Keep the mixer running. Then add the orange zest and the fennel powder to this mixture.
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Pre- heat the oven at 350 F . On the other side sift all the dry ingredients together like flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt . And, mix buttermilk with orange juice.
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Add the dry ingredients with the wet ( buttermilk and orange juice mix) one by one , finally ending with dry ingredients. Stop your mixer in between and try to scrape the sides with the help of a spatula. Mix everything well together for 2 to 3 minutes.
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Meanwhile grease doughnut pans lightly with butter and some flour. Do not dust too much flour. Fill those with the cake batter and bake them for about 20 to 30 minutes depending on your oven's temperature. Once they look baked, remove the pan and let it cool for few minutes. Then remove them on a cooling rack and immediately pour the glaze on top of them . Sprinkle some fennel pollen and enjoy! You can also prepare these as muffins or originally this recipe makes 2 loaves of pound cake. Either way these are delicious.
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For the glaze - Take the confectioner's sugar and orange juice and whisk it well. You can dunk the top of donuts into the glaze, or else lightly drizzle glaze with the whisk making zig zag and garnish them with some fennel pollen. If you do not wish to make the glaze , I would say sprinkle it with some confectioner's sugar and eat them before someone else finishes it.
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