A Citrus-Sweet Goodbye Cake
A third goodbye in the lab within the last 8 months, and the heralding of the end of summer. At least there's cake to make it a little better.
I have a love affair with the pairing of orange and chocolate (amongst other things), and I have exploited this well-matched flavor combo on more than one occasion, usually in a drunken cake of some sort, often involving Grand Marnier. I always forget how strong this orange-flavored liquor is (40% alcohol, can you believe it?!) and add too generously, resulting in a chocolate cake with an orange punch in the face.
So I made the same mistake this time too, but I tried to remedy it by cooking the jam-liquor mixture on the stove a little bit to burn off a little alcohol. Whether the sugar melded with the liquor enough for me not to notice it as much, or if it really burned off, I can't tell, but in any case, it's already soaked into the cake, so too late!
The cake comes from Nigella Lawson, the decadently sensuous Brit who makes her show almost PG-13 by some of her food descriptions. I am actually a pretty devoted fan because I like her approach to cooking and baking--it should be family-centered, the simpler the better, for enjoyment, and for therapeutic purposes.
My jam filling is simply a jar of orange marmalade, approximately a shot or so of Grand Marnier, and about 1/4 cup of orange juice. I mentioned that I tried to cook off the alcohol a bit, and in the process of doing so, I melted the pectin of the jam, which was much more convenient for me to brush onto the cake and have it soak in successfully.
The icing was special request by the honoree, who is a fan of the creamy icing found on the Red Velvet Cake and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cake in earlier posts on this blog. I made it extra orangey by adding a bit of my marmalade mixture.
And of course, a little bit of dark chocolate shaved on top always makes things just that much better...
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake (adapted from Nigella Lawson)
Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup superfine sugar (I used 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup Splenda)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup best-quality cocoa (I used half "black cocoa" from my local fancy chocolate store and half dutch process cocoa from Penzey's)
1 & 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons good-quality vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream (I used nonfat sour cream)
Directions:
Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and center your oven rack. Grease and line with parchment paper two 8-inch diameter cake pans.
Sift and mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together in your mixing bowl. Add the butter and cream together until combined and creamy. My dough was pretty stiff at this point.
In a separate bowl, mix together your cocoa, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. It will look like chocolate pudding (but it won't taste like it, so don't try!) Beat this mixture into your flour/butter mixture and mix until smooth. It will be a thick batter.
Divide batter evenly between the two cake pans. I measure my pans on a small scale, tare off the pan weight, and weigh the batter between the two pans-- the batter in each pan was about 14 ounces.
Put your cake pans on the center rack and bake until cake tester comes out clean. Anywhere from 25-35 minutes is possible. I used half Splenda, so the cook time was faster--mine was done in 25.
Let cakes cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before taking them out. The cake is relatively springy and sturdy, but don't worry if things crack, because once you frost it, no one can tell the difference...
For the filling, I combined one 12 ounce jar of orange marmalade with about 1/4 cup of orange juice and at least 1 ounce of Grand Marnier. I cooked this on the stove a little bit until the mixture became liquidy and the taste of the Grand Marnier was a little less apparent. I used a brush to brush the liquidy portion of this mixture onto the two cake layers, and then I spread all the orange rind pieces in a monolayer on the first cake layer.
To frost the cake, I used the recipe found below. I added about 1/4 cup of my orange mixture (before I heated it up, so it was still gloppy when I added it to the frosting) and whipped it in with my mixer. I tossed the icing into the fridge for about 15 minutes while I fussed with soaking the warm syrup into the cake. Then when I finished spreading the rinds of the marmalade on the bottom cake layer (see first two photos above), I put a layer of frosting on top and spread it evenly. The second soaked cake layer came next and then the entire cake was frosted with the rest of the frosting. Lastly, a large chunk of dark chocolate was shaved with a fruit peeler for nice little slivers of chocolate to adorn the top of the cake.
Creamy Vanilla Icing (adapted from Red Velvet Cake I from Allrecipes.com)
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar (I used half sugar, half Splenda this time)
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, begin heating up the milk. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Set aside to cool completely. In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then stir in cooled milk/flour mixture. Beat several minutes until the icing is fluffy and stiff, and until you cannot feel any granulated sugar in the frosting anymore.
I have a love affair with the pairing of orange and chocolate (amongst other things), and I have exploited this well-matched flavor combo on more than one occasion, usually in a drunken cake of some sort, often involving Grand Marnier. I always forget how strong this orange-flavored liquor is (40% alcohol, can you believe it?!) and add too generously, resulting in a chocolate cake with an orange punch in the face.
So I made the same mistake this time too, but I tried to remedy it by cooking the jam-liquor mixture on the stove a little bit to burn off a little alcohol. Whether the sugar melded with the liquor enough for me not to notice it as much, or if it really burned off, I can't tell, but in any case, it's already soaked into the cake, so too late!
The cake comes from Nigella Lawson, the decadently sensuous Brit who makes her show almost PG-13 by some of her food descriptions. I am actually a pretty devoted fan because I like her approach to cooking and baking--it should be family-centered, the simpler the better, for enjoyment, and for therapeutic purposes.
My jam filling is simply a jar of orange marmalade, approximately a shot or so of Grand Marnier, and about 1/4 cup of orange juice. I mentioned that I tried to cook off the alcohol a bit, and in the process of doing so, I melted the pectin of the jam, which was much more convenient for me to brush onto the cake and have it soak in successfully.
The icing was special request by the honoree, who is a fan of the creamy icing found on the Red Velvet Cake and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cake in earlier posts on this blog. I made it extra orangey by adding a bit of my marmalade mixture.
And of course, a little bit of dark chocolate shaved on top always makes things just that much better...
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake (adapted from Nigella Lawson)
Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup superfine sugar (I used 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup Splenda)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup best-quality cocoa (I used half "black cocoa" from my local fancy chocolate store and half dutch process cocoa from Penzey's)
1 & 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons good-quality vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream (I used nonfat sour cream)
Directions:
Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and center your oven rack. Grease and line with parchment paper two 8-inch diameter cake pans.
Sift and mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together in your mixing bowl. Add the butter and cream together until combined and creamy. My dough was pretty stiff at this point.
In a separate bowl, mix together your cocoa, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. It will look like chocolate pudding (but it won't taste like it, so don't try!) Beat this mixture into your flour/butter mixture and mix until smooth. It will be a thick batter.
Divide batter evenly between the two cake pans. I measure my pans on a small scale, tare off the pan weight, and weigh the batter between the two pans-- the batter in each pan was about 14 ounces.
Put your cake pans on the center rack and bake until cake tester comes out clean. Anywhere from 25-35 minutes is possible. I used half Splenda, so the cook time was faster--mine was done in 25.
Let cakes cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before taking them out. The cake is relatively springy and sturdy, but don't worry if things crack, because once you frost it, no one can tell the difference...
For the filling, I combined one 12 ounce jar of orange marmalade with about 1/4 cup of orange juice and at least 1 ounce of Grand Marnier. I cooked this on the stove a little bit until the mixture became liquidy and the taste of the Grand Marnier was a little less apparent. I used a brush to brush the liquidy portion of this mixture onto the two cake layers, and then I spread all the orange rind pieces in a monolayer on the first cake layer.
To frost the cake, I used the recipe found below. I added about 1/4 cup of my orange mixture (before I heated it up, so it was still gloppy when I added it to the frosting) and whipped it in with my mixer. I tossed the icing into the fridge for about 15 minutes while I fussed with soaking the warm syrup into the cake. Then when I finished spreading the rinds of the marmalade on the bottom cake layer (see first two photos above), I put a layer of frosting on top and spread it evenly. The second soaked cake layer came next and then the entire cake was frosted with the rest of the frosting. Lastly, a large chunk of dark chocolate was shaved with a fruit peeler for nice little slivers of chocolate to adorn the top of the cake.
Creamy Vanilla Icing (adapted from Red Velvet Cake I from Allrecipes.com)
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar (I used half sugar, half Splenda this time)
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, begin heating up the milk. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Set aside to cool completely. In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then stir in cooled milk/flour mixture. Beat several minutes until the icing is fluffy and stiff, and until you cannot feel any granulated sugar in the frosting anymore.
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