Fuss-free cakes are easy as pie

By Erica Marcus

Long Island Newsday

I’m a very confi- dent cook, but the prospect of baking a cake can strike terror in my heart. When you cook, you are constantly tasting, stirring, poking, prodding. But baking requires blind faith: You follow the directions, put your cake in the oven and hope for the best. If your cake doesn’t rise, if it refuses to come out of the pan ... you’re out of luck.

And so over the years, I have assembled an arsenal of cake recipes that are pretty much idiot-proof. My criteria for dead-easy cakes are:

No separating of eggs.

No melting of chocolate.

No more than one appliance (if that).

No fancy techniques or ingredients.

No frosting necessary.

Here are three cakes that meet all five requirements: an orange-almond cake that uses a whole, unpeeled orange; an apple cake made in one bowl; and a chocolate cake almost as easy (but infinitely better) than one from a mix. All are delicious as is, but no one would complain if they were gussied up with a dollop of freshly whipped cream.

First up is Orange-Almond Cake. This unorthodox cake contains one whole navel orange, peel, pith and all. It has a moist, creamy interior and a dark, crunchy exterior. Baking it in a Bundt pan makes for a beautiful presentation, but you must carefully butter the pan’s every nook and cranny. I’ve found powder-free latex or vinyl gloves unbeatable for this task.

ORANGE-ALMOND CAKE

Makes 8 to 12 servings

1 navel orange

8 ounces slivered or sliced almonds (Trader Joe’s lightly toasted slivered or sliced almonds are perfect)

1 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing the pan, at room temperature

5 eggs

Place orange in a small saucepan and cover with water. Put a heat-proof glass plate or pot lid on the orange to keep it submerged. Place over medium heat, bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer 30 minutes. Remove orange and cool. (You can immerse it in cold water to hasten this.) Cut orange in half, each half into 4 to 6 wedges, and the wedges into chunks. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter either a 9-inch Bundt pan, an 8-inch tube pan or a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.

Place almonds in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of sugar and process until nuts are finely ground. Remove from the processor bowl. Pour a handful of ground almonds into cake pan, then shake pan to evenly distribute almonds. Bang out any excess almonds and return them to the rest of the nuts.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Cut butter into pieces.

Place orange chunks — peel, pith and all — into the bowl of a food processor with the remaining sugar. Process until orange is pur ed. Add the ground almonds and the butter and process until well mixed. Add eggs and process until they are integrated. Add dry ingredients and process until just combined. Immediately pour batter into cake pan and bake until cake is nicely browned and starting to come away from the edges, about an hour. A wooden skewer inserted into the center should come out clean. When pan is cool enough to handle, loosen the cake with a thin, narrow knife (a grapefruit knife works well) then unmold cake and let it cool out of the pan.

Next is Farmhouse Apple Cake. This thin, elegant dessert, adapted from “Four Seasons of Italian Cooking” by A.J. Battifarano, is somewhere between a cake and a tart.

The apple slices are bound by a custard that gets wonderfully caramelized on top.

Cooking it in a springform pan allows you to unmold it for an impressive presentation, but you also could bake it in a 10-inch round pan; you just won’t be able to unmold it.

Wacky Cake is a famous recipe in which the dry ingredients are sifted directly into the cake pan, then three holes are poked therein.

Into one goes the vanilla, one the vinegar and the other the oil. Then milk is poured over all and the batter is mixed right in the pan.

You could certainly make this recipe ... wackily, but mixing the batter in a bowl allows you to line the pan with parchment paper, and that makes unmolding the cake much easier.

This eggless cake also can be made by substituting water for the milk and vegetable oil for the butter. Milk makes the cake richer, but water bestows a more chocolaty intensity.