Fresh Orange Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm not so sure that this cake photo is "A Feast for the Eyes".  In fact, I was so disappointed with my lackluster photos of this delicious cake, that I pondered one of two things-- don't post these photos at all, or make the cake again.

The perfectionist in me, almost chose the latter option.  However, as much I love to bake, I reserve cake baking for when I have dinner guests.  (I know that my will power becomes weakened if I have a cake in my kitchen.) 

I love citrus desserts, and when I bought some seasonal Cara Cara oranges, at a good price, I knew that the oranges would be destined to become the cake recipe that I spotted on "The Red Spoon".  I hate to waste any change to use citrus zest and, because I wanted my cake to have a lot of orange flavor, I set it aside.

Meg's recipe uses store-bought orange juice.  I decided to freshly squeeze mine, after zesting them.

 

I used about six oranges to get one cup of fresh squeezed juice.

Anytime I see vegetable oil and sour cream in a cake recipe, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have a moist cake. 

Plus, I don't have to worry about softening butter, since it's not to be found in this recipe. I like to add a couple teaspoons of Butter Sweet Dough Emulsion.  I think it adds a special "bakery flavor" to my cakes.

I also love Boyajian Pure Orange Oil, and I always keep a bottle in my refrigerator.  So, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of this to my cake batter.

Mix until smooth.  Pour into 3 9-inch prepared cake pans. NOTE: I don't recommend using only 2 pans, like I did. Why? Well, after baking the cakes for about 22 minutes at 350F, and allowing them to cool...

I realized that the cake is so moist, that I struggled to cut each layer in half without risking it breaking into chunks! I thought I'd create a lovey four-layer cake, like I did with my Coconut Layer Cake.  Not a good idea.  However, I forged on, and my thin layers survived intact.

I seriously thought about making a Swiss Buttercream frosting, with the orange zest and orange oil.  But, I decided to go with the cream cheese frosting that Meg used.

I used 3 packages of cream cheese and one stick of buttah.  I had about 1/4 cup of orange zest, so added half to the frosting...

..plus 1/4 more of orange juice.  I used about 4 cups of confectioner's sugar, but you can certainly use double that-- if you want a thick and really sweet frosting. I have a sweet tooth, but I do have my limits!

I was pleased with the silky texture of the frosting-- and I gave it a taste. Then I added the rest of the orange zest.

Perfect!

So, I managed to slice the two cakes into four layers-- and soon realized I barely had enough frosting!

Lucky, I pulled it off and put the cake into the fridge.

I had an inspiration that I would make candied orange slices, as a pretty garnish.  I used mandarin oranges, actually, so they would be small-ish.  Only, I broke my Golden Rule of Common Sense-- and when our guests arrived, I left the oranges slices unattended, while greeting our guest. In a matter of minutes, the sugar-water went to the hard ball stage...and....

..they became as hard as glass and many of the slices turned a very dark color. The few that I salvaged  were pretty, but hard to work with. SIGH. That goes to show that one must never leave hot sugar unattended. Never!

It's really hard to try to plate and photograph a recipe when you have dinner guests. They know I'm a food blogger, but they were as anxious as the rest of my family to dig in to dessert.  

So, here is a less than stellar photo of the cake.  But, taste is really what matters, right?

TASTING NOTES:  The cake was super moist and tender.  I believe that the orange oil really helped to make that beautiful orange citrus flavor to be at the forefront of our taste buds.  The frosting was excellent-- and I'm usually not the biggest fan of cream cheese frostings.  I loved the little bits of orange zest, too.  I sent a large section of the cake, home with our dinner guests. My friend told me that she enjoyed the cake for the next couple of days.  Would I make this cake again? You bet! In fact, I plan to make a version with fresh lemons, lemon zest and pure lemon oil.   I think that a Swiss Buttercream frosting, with either orange or lemon would be a lovely variation to this cake recipe.

A printable recipe card, with my adaptations,  is at the end of this post. If you can't view it (if you're using Windows Explorer), click here to see my recipe. You can see the original recipe here.

Happy Spring!  

Blueberry Crumb Cake

So, how's everyone doing with their New Year's Weight Loss Resolutions?  Me? I'm doing fine. You see, I play it safe. I don't make them.  Well, I do, but they are never food-related.   I make no secret that I have a wicked sweet tooth.   I love dessert. I just try to resist going back for seconds.

So, about that healthy eating thing that kicks into full gear in January...  how about blueberries? They're loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. They're terrific with some Greek Yogurt. Absolutely! But, that's not what I did with the blueberries I couldn't resist buying.   I wanted to bake something for breakfast.  I blame it on the Blue Bottle Coffee that I bought, while we were in San Francisco.  Wow, is that ever great coffee!  So, I decided to bake a crumb cake.  To be on the safe side, I chose a recipe from Ina Garten.  I trust her recipes. 

The streusel is easy to make-- flour, white and brown sugar, cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg. Now, we add one stick of unsalted butter that's been melted, and blend it all together.

The cake batter: anytime I see sour cream as an ingredient, I anticipate a really moist cake.  The batter begins with 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter and sugar. Be sure to cream it with a mixer for 4-5 minutes. We want lots of air and fluffy goodness.  Then, we add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and then the rest of the dry ingredients-- flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda. (Don't worry, a printable recipe card is at the end of this post.)   I usually let my husband lick the beater blades. But, this time, I had to dip my fingers around the edges.  This batter tastes great! 

Very gently, fold about a cup of blueberries (I added a bit more).

Evenly spread the batter into a prepared 9" cake pan. I used a Springform Pan with parchment paper on the bottom.

With your hands, mix up the streusel topping, and then evenly spread it on top of the cake batter.

Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes.  The aroma is so good, while it bakes!  I checked mine at 40 minutes with a toothpick, but the center needed about five more minutes.  Cool.  NOTE: I like to eat my coffee cakes on the warm side, so I let it cool for about 20 minutes.

I'll bet this cake would look pretty with a dusting of powdered sugar. I didn't want to do that, because I prefer to dust by the slice. 

VERDICT:  This is "bakery good".  The cake is really moist. It's not super sweet.  The crumb topping is just how it should be.  Need I say more?  Ina Garten has great quality control in any recipe she posts.  This is a coffee cake I would serve to any guest in my home.  I think this recipe would work as muffins, too.   

I justify fruit and cake for breakfast as perfectly acceptable.  I just have to swim a few extra laps. Next week.  Here's the recipe:

Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

After all of my whining stress about this Christmas Season, I am most thankful that my family gathered together for a traditional German Christmas Eve Dinner.   What made this particular holiday so different, is that we adults mutually agreed that we would not exchange purchased Christmas gifts.  Know what? I was perfectly fine with that.  My gift to my family was slaving standing in my kitchen for several hours, making Austrian Goulash, Bavarian Semmel Knoedel (can you say that?) red cabbage, cherve' and an assortment of sausages.

I wanted to make a dessert that would look festive, and wouldn't be too difficult to make. After all, I had about four hours to create the entire menu.  I spotted this recipe in the most recent issue of Cuisine At Home Magazine.  I've never made a Red Velvet Cake, before, and I loved the idea of a White Chocolate Frosting.   This particular recipe uses buttermilk and vegetable oil, in lieu of butter.   I was banking that this combination would be essential components to a really moist cake.

I got a little nervous, because it took a lot of red food coloring so that the cake wouldn't be pink!  I had to dig in to my gel food coloring (for frosting), as I didn't have one full ounce of liquid food color.  That was a real challenge to get it to break the gel paste into the buttermilk.  At last, I mixed the buttermilk with vanilla and the food coloring, first,  since the recipe said it would help to avoid a huge mess. Ha! (More on that later.)

I confess.  I usually skip sifting cake dry ingredients. In this case, I sifted both unbleached flour and cake flour together.  This recipe listed 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, plus some espresso powder and salt.  Sift, sift, sift... done.  Last, but not least, I wisked all of the dry ingredients together.

 

To white sugar, I added three eggs, and beat it until white and fluffy -- about 5 minutes. Next, I slowly drizzled the vegetable oil until it was fully incorporated.  Alternating the dry ingredients...

...and the red buttermilk mixture.  I then added some white vinegar at the end.  I divided the batter into 2 8x8 square baking pans.  These were baked at 375 for about 35 minutes.

TIP: Whenever I bake cakes, I set two timers-- one for the time recommended, and a second one for about 10 minutes sooner.  I test each cake a little early from the recommended time, so that I don't risk over baking the cake. The cake in the metal pan baked much faster than the glass one.   Of course, you can bake the cakes in a round pan, but I wanted my photo to look like the one in the magazine (background of picture below).  About that mess...

Red dye is a mess!  You can see the magazine photo in the background.  Stunning, isn't it? Speaking of red dye-- if you don't like red dye, then don't use it.  I did a little bit of research on Red Velvet Cake.   Camps are divided on what a true definition of Red Velvet Cake is.  (If you're curious, you can click here for the story.)  I'm not afraid of a little food quality red dye, on occasion. Heck, I like maraschino cherries! Don't judge.  

I was relieved to see that my cakes didn't look pink. Let the cakes sit for about 10 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack.  While the cakes completely cooled, I made the frosting.

Cream cheese frosting is what I most often see with Red Velvet Cake. However, that's not a traditional frosting. Did you know that?  It's true!  A Cooked Vanilla Frosting is a more traditional frosting. I've made this before, with my favorite chocolate cake.   On medium heat, cook whole milk and flour together until it's thick.  Whatever you do, don't boil it and don't walk away! It thickens up super fast, and then you've got a mess.  Mine got a little lumpy (because I decided to clean up, and got distracted).  I ended up putting the milk/flour mixture through a fine sieve.

Cover the mixture with plastic wrap, to prevent a "skin" from forming over it. Put it in the fridge to cool.

I once took a Wilton cake decorating class. While I'm not a super-pro, I have learned a few tricks to make things a little easier.  I use a serrated knife to level off the one cake that rose higher than the other.   I bought a Cake Lifter, and I have to tell you that this prevents me from breaking my cakes whenever I transfer them.   

I struggled, a bit, with cutting off the edges of the square cake.  The edges turned out a little crispy an dark.  Not pretty.  It took some cursing patience, but I got the edges cut off so that it would reveal the pretty red color of the cake. 

TIP: When I cut a cake in half, I place it on a turning cake stand. I place a serrated knife in the middle, and slowly rotate the cake until the lines connect.  I keep rotating, while cutting in deeper.  Finally, my cake is cut in half and it's even. Otherwise, you can insert toothpicks to give you margins to cut.

I used 4 ounces of Ghirardelli White Chocolate, which is pretty thin.  I used the microwave, at about 30 seconds, to melt the chocolate; then I set it aside to cool.  In my stand mixer, I used two sticks of softened, unsalted butter and white sugar.

The melted chocolate and cooled flour/milk mixture is on standby.  Cream the white sugar and butter, until it's really fluffy-- about 7 minutes.  Add the chilled milk mixture and white chocolate, and beat on high speed until light and fluffy-- about five more minutes.

It's pretty amazing how the frosting whips into a whipped cream texture.  I tasted the frosting, and I felt it really needed vanilla, so I added about 1 teaspoon. Perfect.

NOTE: No, you don't have to add white chocolate.  I happen to love white chocolate, so that's what intrigued me most about this recipe.  I think I would have doubled the amount of white chocolate, though, as I thought it was barely detectable.

Using a vegetable peeler, I shaved the long (and very thin) side of the Ghiradelli bar.  A thick block of white chocolate would have made pretty and longer curls.   I also crumbled some of the cake trimmings, for decoration.

Piping an edge of frosting is the easiest way to fill all four layers.  Cuisine At Home suggested piping the entire surface-- however, I realized I'd run out of frosting really fast.

So, I "plopped" some frosting in the middle and spread it with an offset spatula.  I wasn't worried about crumbs, either. 

I was going to cut some wooden dowels (like I use for grilling shrimp etc.) but I decided to skip that process.  Here's the challenge-- this frosting is very soft!  The cake can easily turn into the leaning Tower of Pisa!  I sprinkled some cake crumbs on top, for decoration and then the white chocolate. Then, I immediately chilled the cake.   The frosting sets pretty quickly.

 More mess to cleanup. Sigh.  I put the cake into the refrigerator and got busy making dinner.

The cake definitely was a show-stopper at the dessert table.

The crumb of the cake definitely had a velvet texture, which is really how the cake got it's name.

The frosting did ooze over the edges a bit.  Next time, I think I'd leave a bit more of a cake edge, since this frosting down soften very quickly.

So, the moment of truth--  

TASTING NOTES:   The cake was very moist, and  I was happy with the fine crumb texture.  The color definitely was a beautiful red, and I thought it was visually appealing.   

Work Involved:  I thought this cake was a bit labor intensive, and certainly used a lot of dishes. Flavor:  My niece, I didn't realize before, adores Red Velvet Cake. She was so excited that I had made this, and I was so pleased that she was delighted.  

Let's start with me.  I was a bit underwhelmed with the flavor.  You see, I've never been a big fan of  Red Velvet Cake.  I think it's because I love adore white cake, and I like a rich dark chocolate cake as second choice-- as long as it has white frosting to tame the chocolate flavor.  Red Velvet Cake is a cross between a white cake and a tease of chocolate. At least that's my opinion.  I loved the frosting, which isn't cloyingly sweet.  In fact, I much prefer that over a cream cheese frosting (boo, hiss).  Out of five stars, I declared this cake to be a 3.5.  My niece, however, said this cake deserved 6 stars out of 5!  My son loved it, too. Was it worth it?  Anytime someone I love is happy with a recipe, then it was worth the effort. 

So, don't listen to my personal lackluster review.  Remember, I love white cake the best. If you love Red Velvet Cake, then I think you'd like this version.  It's got the moisture factor, and isn't super sweet.  Make a Cream Cheese Frosting, if you prefer. 

I sent my niece home with the majority of the cake.  I'm glad it made her very happy.  As always, a printable recipe card is at the end of this post.  I'm on a two-week vacation, and I can finally catch up with my back-log of recipes that I'd like to share with you.  Amen!

Next year, I'm going to to jump start my Christmas baking and homemade edible gifts a lot sooner. I'll box up my jars, and fancy ribbons, recipes and edible decorations that I bought-- all with the best of intentions-- until next year.  No matter what, the Spirit of Christmas was in the house.  I am thankful.  But now-- life goes back to normal, and less temptation to indulge in sweets should lessen. At least, I hope so!