From Cake to Muffin

[Darienne]

Smitten Kitchen's (adapted from A Good Appetite) "Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake" with Honey-blood orange compote and thick cream. Compote and cream are added later to the finished cake.

The cake was nothing short of fantastic. So moist, such a wonderful crumb, delicious. I was in heaven and 5 of us for lunch ate almost the entire cake.

Now I would like to make this cake into muffins.

Currently in a 9x5" loaf pan at 350 degrees F, it bakes for 50 to 55 minutes. So I would bake it at the same 350 degrees? in large muffin tins with papers for roughly how many minutes? 35? (That's the timing for large Morning Glory Muffins.)

Anything else of import that I should know before I set off to do this thing?

Oh, right, I am going to add chopped walnuts to the batter.

[runwestierun]

Hmm, I would start testing at 20 minutes, especially if your muffin pan is dark metal.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'd go with 20 minutes as well, and reduce the leavening just a tad (maybe 1/8 tsp) to prevent overflowing if it's normally a high cake. Dark metal muffin tins are deceptive and muffins cook much much faster than you think.

Also it kind of goes without saying that you should toss your chopped nuts in a bit of flour before incorporating them into the batter, to keep them from all sinking to the bottom.

[Darienne]

Hi runwestierun and Panaderia Canadiense (interesting name),

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try the muffins very soon. And yes, my pans are fairly dark. And no, I might not have remembered about flouring the nuts.

[Genkinaonna]

I generally bake my muffins a little hotter, maybe 365 or so...depending on the size of the muffin tin. Definitely don't make the same mistake I ALWAYS do and overfill your muffin tins! But I'm sure you're better about that than I am anyways

Can't wait for the pictures. I planned on making that cake this week but time got away from me. Maybe tomorrow, you've got me thinking about it again!

[Darienne]

I have a photo of the cake, but it doesn't look like anything really. Just a one layer round cake in my case. And my cut piece is not 'plated'. (I did add more sauce subsequently, but I didn't make enough and wanted our guests to have enough first.) I've never plated anything in my life. (For you only am I including this photo.)

But the taste of the cake had me waxing poetic at length.

Edited May 1, 2011 by Darienne (log)

[Genkinaonna]

Awww...I feel so special

I have oranges on my grocery list for today. Happy muffining! Wow it's only 6:30 am and I've already invented a new verb! I can tell it'll be a productive day...

[Darienne]

Awww...I feel so special

I have oranges on my grocery list for today. Happy muffining! Wow it's only 6:30 am and I've already invented a new verb! I can tell it'll be a productive day...

Good new word. Deserved to be invented.

I have a shamefuf secret: because we can't get blood oranges most of the time, I am going to try this recipe with Navel oranges which I have on hand all the time.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Should be delicious with Navels - or if you can get your hands on those small Calamondins that have the burst of flavour.....

Thanks for the compliment on the name - I'm an expat Canadian living and baking at extreme altitudes, and my screen-name is actually the name of my bakery (literally, it translates to Canadian Bread-ery, but Canadian Bakery is the proper sense of the word - and if I'd spoken more Spanish when I incorporated, it would have been called Reposteria Canadiense - the Canadian Desert-ery)

[Darienne]

Should be delicious with Navels - or if you can get your hands on those small Calamondins that have the burst of flavour.....

Thanks for the compliment on the name - I'm an expat Canadian living and baking at extreme altitudes, and my screen-name is actually the name of my bakery (literally, it translates to Canadian Bread-ery, but Canadian Bakery is the proper sense of the word - and if I'd spoken more Spanish when I incorporated, it would have been called Reposteria Canadiense - the Canadian Desert-ery)

Odd you should mention Calamondins. I just finished a post in Heidi's blog about my Calamondin saplings. They come from an area friend who has two bearing trees. If I live another 25 years (ha!) I should get fruit. Otherwise, you cannot buy them here. Ever.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I sometimes forget how spoiled I am for ingredients here. I can get Calamondins, and for that matter Seville and Blood Oranges almost year-round at the giant Monday fresh market 10 blocks from my house, because they're grown about 20 minutes from here.

Best of luck with your trees, and your muffins!

[Darienne]

Someone asked for photos. Here are most of the muffins. They are delicious although they don't look very exciting at all.

(Not to mention a tad fuzzy.)

[Genkinaonna]

Well I think they're exciting! I made the cake yesterday, and I must say, I think you and your friends showed remarkable self restraint when you ate ALMOST all of it...my husband and I ate half all by ourselves in the first hour it was out of the oven! After making it, I would say that I would think muffins from the same recipe would benefit from some sort of streusel topping, maybe with almonds. It seems like the crunch would work well with the softness of the muffin. Also, I think that next time I might add some lemon juice as well to bump up the tartness, my oranges were really sweet. I will have pics up on my blog at some point but they're not there yet!

[Darienne]

Good point about the lemon juice. The streusel would be fine for dessert...but I am eating mine first thing (I mean FIRST THING) in the am with some pills I have to take which require food and streusel would be beyond my palate.

I forgot to add that I did use one blood orange and one honking big Navel. Did not remove any membranes. Oh, and orange juice from the fridge because I didn't want to use another orange. Lots of zest. (I orange and lemon zest) Pulsed them in the processor. Oh, and I added one cup of chopped pecans.

They baked for 30 minutes in large muffin papers in old dark large muffin pans.

[Genkinaonna]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks pretty much any recipe can be improved by throwing in a big honkin' handful of pecans!