Baking Friday - Cake # 5 - My Grandmother's Orange Cake

Before I begin talking about this week's cake, I have to share something special with you!

How wonderful and fun is that?!  This was a surprise sitting on my desk first thing Thursday morning!  And this beautiful, talented young mother is the thoughtful friend who made this for me!  Thank you, Miss K!  I LOVE this!!!

I LOVE surprises!!!

Okay, now for today's cake!  I have precious few recipe cards in my recipe box in my mother's handwriting.  I have 9 to be exact.  The most prized and often used one being her peanut brittle.

Among these 9 recipe cards are two cakes - Scripture cake, which is essentially a Vacation Bible School activity where the ingredients are listed as 1/2 c of Judges 5:25 or 3 Isaiah 10:14 and the student looks up the verse to find the food mentioned there - and this one.

Orange Cake.  Mother's Orange Cake.

Except since this is in my mother's handwriting, this is really our grandmother's orange cake.  And here is the icing on the back of the card.

Simple recipe yet I honestly didn't find an orange cake recipe online that was quite like this one.

Now what is interesting to me is that I don't recall mother making this cake or my grandmother either.  I am the last grandchild, so perhaps my sister and cousins remember grandmother making this cake.  I just don't happen to remember it - nor have I made it myself.

But I am celebrating Mother's Day treats so I thought this would be a great time to make this cake in honor of my own mother and grandmother.

Now, does it still count as my grandmother's recipe if I made a few changes and added a frosting along with the glaze?  I hope so, because this cake turned out really good.  More than one person said that it reminded them of old-fashioned cakes.  One spoke of old-fashioned church potlucks when the "grandmas" would bring out their Sunday best with a little friendly competition to see who would get the bragging rights of having the empty platter and most requests for the recipe.  Another spoke of "being transported back in time like a delicious time machine...back to the cakes his grandmother used to make when he was growing up in Arkansas.  You can definitely taste the distinctive flavors of Orange, and Love in every bite."  Others said that they didn't know they liked orange cake, but that this was "phenomenal."  Still another said with a bit of a cadence in the email "I like the cake.  It was something new and different.  Yet there was something familiar about it.  This was the first time I ate such a cake."  The cake is moist, and "the syrup mixture in the cake...brings some fun to the party, moist and perfect flavor..."  A real pick-me-up from the orange flavor said another!  (I really enjoy reading the feedback from my taste tester volunteers!)

Now grandmother stopped the cake at the point of the glaze...or essentially here...

But I wanted to add a fluffy, light, soft orangy frosting on the whole.  I also knew that I needed to double the recipe to have enough for everyone.  So I baked it in two 10" round pans instead of the 8" x 13" pan called for by my mother.  So for the frosting I basically combined whipped cream with a cream cheese icing,and it really turned out good.  One used the phrase "to die for, light fluffy goodness" to describe this frosting.  The flavors linger in your mouth wanting more.  One young lady remarked on her way back to her cube that she "already wanted to go back for seconds."

Before I share the recipe that I did, here is how the finished cake looked - a bit updated perhaps from what grandmother would have done, but I still kept the essence and best attributes of her legacy.

Looks Springy and homey and pretty, don't you think?  I really liked how this one turned out if it's okay for me to say so.  And it really is easy, ladies and gentlemen.  It may take a few steps, but none of the steps are hard at all.  If you have some oranges on hand, you can do this!

Ready?  This is the double recipe that I made.  I also substituted some oil for a portion of the butter to up the moistness just a bit without losing the flavor from the butter grandmother's recipe called for.  Here we go!

3/4 cup of softened butter
1/4 of vegetable oil
2 cups of sugar
2 eggs*
4 cups of flour
1-1/4 t. salt
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
Grated rind of 1 large or 2 small oranges
2 c. of sour milk (I soured by added 2 T. of white vinegar)
Splash of vanilla and orange extract
7 drops of orange oil (optional)
*Note: I also had 3 egg yolks leftover from making something else, so I threw those in with the eggs.

I didn't take pictures of these steps, because they are pretty basic cake making steps.  I creamed the butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy.  I added the eggs and the orange zest and mixed until thoroughly combined. I mixed the dry ingredients together with a whisk (I could have sifted them together) and I combined the sour milk with the flavorings and orange oil.  I added the dry ingredients alternately with the wet, beginning and ending with the dry.  Finally I poured the batter into two 10" cake pans that I had greased on the bottom and lined with parchment on the bottom only and sprayed the parchment, too.  (I left the sides of the cake pans untreated to help minimize the cake from "humping" in the middle.)  I baked at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 min until golden and a toothpick came out clean.  I tried to not over bake the cake, but mother's instructions said "until done" so I began testing after 25 minutes, and the layers took about 33 minutes total in my oven.

While the layers were baking, I put together the orange glaze to pour over the hot cakes.

2 cups of sugar
Grated rind of 1 large or 2 small oranges
Juice of 2 large oranges
Few grains of salt

I boiled this mixture until thick like a sugar syrup.  Here it is at the beginning of boiling...

...and here it is at the end of boiling...about 5 minutes later...

...and here it is right before pouring over each hot layer.  Now there are two things that I did that my mother or grandmother never would have done, for they never would have had these ingredients in their homes.  I added a splash each of Amaretto and Triple Sec after removing from the heat.  Please don't tell either of them, okay?  Our little secret, right?

I poked holes in each layer with a fork and poured this glaze over the hot cakes.

And this is where my grandmother ended.  She likely served the cake from the pan, and there is nothing at all wrong with serving it that way.  The cake will be tasty and moist and yummy in its simplicity!

But I wanted to create a layer cake, so I removed the layers from the pan after they had cooled for 15 min to let them cool completely.

Now about that frosting!  I began by simply whipping 2 cups of whipping cream with a splash of vanilla and orange extract and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  It held a peak, but wasn't stiff.

This stuff tastes luscious just like it is!  It would make a great whipped cream to top Grande Marnier pecan pie!  Or as a fruit dip.  Or quite honestly simply eaten from a spoon!

But I wasn't done!  Now for the cream cheese icing part...

8oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
Few grains of salt
Splash of vanilla and orange extract
4 cups of powdered sugar
5 T. of orange juice
Bit of yellow gel food coloring and tiny amount of pink gel food coloring (or orange, if I'd had it!)

I creamed everything together until fluffy and soft.

Then I folded in the whipped cream and coloring.  Can we say "Yum!"???

This frosting is soooo easy to work with, because it is so light and fluffy. Even if you hate frosting cakes, this is easy!  I put some of the frosting on the first layer and then added the second layer.

And then I piled a bunch of frosting on the top...

..and spread it to the edges before starting on the sides.

I really wanted a loose, rather home style look to the finished cake rather than a typical decorated cake.

The frosting will pipe even though it isn't a stiff icing, so I piped a border and rosette on the top before setting it in the fridge overnight.

Finally I garnished with well-drained, mandarin orange slices and mint right before serving.  So easy and yet so pretty!

It makes me start looking for a knife....however I never seem to remember to take a picture of the cut cake!  I gotta get better at remembering that!

Happy Mother's Day, Mother and Grandmother.  Thank you both for loving us and treating us to special treats and inspiring us to love on others with our talents.

One more week of Mother's Day treats - a pie for next week - and then I will start on Father's Day treats - more guy-like baked treats.  (Insert Tim Allen grunt here...)

Thank you for stopping by!  Hope you enjoyed reading!!!  And Happy Mother's Day to you and yours!