Orange Cake

I made Orange Cake this morning for a birthday celebration.  The journey began by preparing three bowls: a bowl of sifted flour and baking soda, a bowl of yogurt, orange juice, and a little salt, and a bowl of creamed butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and orange rind.

After combing the three bowls into one, I baked the batter in a loaf pan. The cake baked pretty quickly and got nice and brown on top.

So, after the cake cooled, I inverted it onto a plate and made the glaze. Sugar, orange and lemon juice, and a little orange liqueur bubbled away on the stove.

I used a toothpick and poked the bottom side of the cake all over. I thought that by doing this, the glaze would really get down into the cake!  To be honest, I don't think this method really worked, and next time I will probably just follow Mollie's directions and pour the hot glaze on top.

I sliced up the cake and set it out on a plate. I was worried that it hadn't completely cooked through, but it had! The cake was sweet, but not too sweet. Next time I might try using frozen orange juice concentrate instead of fresh ... which I kind of can't believe I am saying! The orange flavor just wasn't particularly strong.

Orange-Ginger Sauce

I made Orange-Ginger Sauce for another stir-fry extravaganza. This sauce was simple to make and used less cornstarch than the basic stir-fry sauce. I really like it! It was very spicy, which was my own fault, as I was a little to generous with my cayenne sprinkle.
I started with a simple bowl of cornstarch.

Then vigorously whisked in the following:
orange juice
garlic
ginger
soy sauce
orange zest
sherry wine
green onion
salt and pepper
And lastly, that dangerous sprink-a-dink of cayenne.

Until the sauce looked like this:

Then I chopped and cooked some delicious veggies:

Added the sauce, and had a delicious, orange and ginger meal!

Chilled Berry Soup

Chilled Berry Soup is super delicious and cooling. It is a little heap of juicy berries with a blend of yogurt and orange juice poured on top. It's not too sweet and refreshing. I love the way the colors swirl together!