Meskouta Moroccan Orange Cake

This recipe, this Meskouta Moroccan Orange cake, is a redo. I’m reposting it because it’s good and it needs a reintroduction. For when you might be having others over for a socially distanced cup of coffee. For when you’re doing it up with a fancier than normal weekend breakfast. For when you want a little something different for dessert. For when you want to bake and are aimlessly wandering through your kitchen cabinets looking for inspiration.

This recipe is good for all of the above and then some. It’s light enough to be all of those things, yet dessert-y enough to satisfy the most ravenous sweet tooth. I found myself with some time and inclination lately to reshoot this recipe and I’m so glad that I did. To refresh both me and you about what this is all about, here’s the gist:

This appears to be one of those recipes that every Moroccan family has, and every grandma makes different, none with exact measurements by U.S. standard, but rather using something to the tune of “4 yogurt cups full.”  That always makes translating a recipe easy!  I found recipes for lemon, yogurt and orange varieties, and because I was serving this dessert at brunch with my girls, I went with orange to complement the mimosas that also graced the table.

Here’s an excerpt from a blog on Moroccan cooking that details a little history of meskouta and a personal story that I found rather sweet:

“Meskouta, also called Kika, is a butterless cake, commonly baked during hard time[s] and France/Spain Colonization, it was the time when butter was just hard to get and very expensive for the majority [of] Moroccan people.  So argan or olive or vegetable oils are used, which were more readily available than butter.  My mother told me that Meskouta Cakes, in those old times, were baked in a special pot with a cover, over a charcoal brazier “Majmar or Kanoun”, and that her mother used to put sourdough starter “Khmira baldiya” in the cake batter, instead of baking powder, which was not available.  She also explained to me that the texture of the cake looked and tasted like bread, mostly served plain or only, on special occasion, with a sugar syrup (much cheaper than frosting), flavored with cinnamon, fresh orange juice and some drops of orange water, though the most popular topping in Morocco is still jam spread with some grated coconut on top of the cake.”

The recipe I used did not come from this site, but rather I tweaked another one that I found. One very tasty substitution I used was swapping out some blood orange infused olive oil for regular vegetable oil.  I realize this is not an ingredient readily available, but having specialty oil stores** is one of the perks of living in a place like Chicago or even Ann Arbor that boasts residents that often seek out flavors a little different, and ingredients a little special. 

Regular vegetable or olive oil will do just fine.  I also used both regular and whole wheat flour because it’s just something I like to do and finished it off with a light orange glaze that soaked into and moistened the cake.  Garnished with a variety of jams and jellies (lemon curd seemed to be the favorite), this treat got a hearty thumbs up from all of my guests.  This can also be made in a tube pan, but I wanted to make it a loaf, so that’s what I did.

And if you’re looking for another good loaf to make for any occasion, I’ve recently revisited this awesome coffee date bread and realized just how much it reminded me of sticky toffee pudding…a very happy reminder!