Spectacular Orange Cake

Original Post 3/10/10




I love orange.  I love the color.  I love the taste.  I even have an orange coffee machine.  It looks like a little orange spaceship, which definitely would be the color of mine if I had a spaceship.

My little orange spaceship/java generator is quite the TV star.  I cheered it on every time I saw it in Will’s apartment on Will & Grace or in Nip/Tuck’s break room on the set of their LA office. Seem’s there are a few Hollywood set decorators who feel the same way.

Recently I made candied orange peels for the first time.  They inspired me to bake something to decorate them with.

I turned to my vintage German cookbooks and found this recipe for Orange Cake.  Perfect.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a cake wreck.  I don’t know what happened.  German is not my mother tongue but I was sure I followed the recipe to the last umlaut.

Still feeling orangey,  I cruised the web for another recipe and came across this Spectacular Orange Cake Recipe. I was intrigued because not only was the cake and the frosting orange flavored, the recipe also called for an orange jelly-like filling to put between layers.  Triple the orange flavor. Yay.

I made a few additions to the recipe.  The cake batter and the frosting were..well…not orange colored enough for my mood so I tinted both slightly.

I upped the amount of OJ by 1/2 tsp

I also threw a handful of orange jelly pieces and 1 tsp of orange flavor into the cake batter.

Definitely going for the maximum orange taste experience.

The recipe calls for folding the egg whites into the batter.

Spreading the orange filling between layers.

Orange Buttercream frosting.

I decorated the top with the candied orange pieces.

The cake came out flatter than it should.

This is because the standard size cake pan in Germany is larger than the USA size.

Note to self:  Buy 8 inch cake pans on next USA visit.

Another Note to Self:  Remember to photograph the cake after it is cut and before it is eaten.  Duh.