Orange cake

posted on: Thursday, July 10, 2008



This was a two tier cake made from yellow cake batter, orange curd, and orange butter cream. The yellow cake recipe is from my BFF Betty Crocker. The orange curd and orange butter cream is my own doing.

Starlight Yellow Cake

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 ups sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter or sick margarine, softened
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 large eggs
  1. Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of 2 square pans with shortening; lightly flour
  2. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. beat on high speed 3 minuted, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans
  3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center.
  4. cool in a pan for 10 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Orange Curd
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tablespoon finely shredded orange peel
  • 1 cup FRESH orange juice, meaning squeeze the oranges and get the juice, don't add water and don't use the frozen concentrated stuff.
  • 3 tablespoons firm butter cup up
  • 3 large eggs, lightly beat
  1. Mix sweetened condensed milk, lemon peel and lemon juice in heavy 1 1/2- quart saucepan with wire whisk
  2. Stir in butter and eggs. Cook over medium heat about 8 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon
  3. Immediately pour into another bowl and let cool completely
Orange Buttercream Frosting


  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons FRESH orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
  1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed
  2. gradually beat in the orange juice and orange peel.
...and then...
after the cake was cool I filled it with the orange curd and then iced it with the butter cream and used gladiolas to decorate.
... and served it to little children who overlooked all the imperfections.
I don't usually make cakes because a) I don't really like cakes.
b) I make really ugly cakes. I have fantasies of making cakes that look gorgeous. In fact I was determined to make a cake because of this post. As you can see I wasn't even close to what I had fantasied.
Regardless, the cake was made and I had a very forgiving and sweet craving audience who could care less about presentation.

We did sing happy birthday even though we weren't celebrating anyone's birthday. So what were we celebrating? That's the exact question that my husband asked when he looked at me confused and worried that he had forgotten a date that maybe he should of remembered. As he asked the question I could tell that he was going through a date checklist in his mind. Birthday? Nope! Anniversary? Nope! some weired Holiday that Damaris created and expected me to remember but I don't and will get busted? Maybe! He went as far as verbalizing, "Are we celebrating our 50th month wedding anniversary?" Gosh, I've created a paranoid husband.

I told him that we were celebrating lots of things. First that it was Wednesday which means Farmer's Market which means pretty fresh cut flowers to decorate our house.

I was also celebrating the fact that Enzo is now 2 years 3 months and 12 days which means that he still takes naps (3 hour yesterday!) and when he is awake he can entertain himself for over an hour while I cook and he plays by the kitchen.


Now don't start hating on me because as soon as I left him alone for 5 minutes he got the Christmas decorations down and took out all those little hangy things from the tree ornaments and broke almost half of the glass balls.

Actually what we were REALLY celebrating was our good friends, Ben and Victoria who are moving this Friday to Berkely to start Law school. We are celebrating their achievement not the move. Sorry it took me so long to say what the cake was all about it I'm just in total denial of them leaving. Leaving? who's leaving? Not Ben and Victoria the perfect neighbors and babysitters and friends and...

Tchau, Tchau Ben, Victoria, Avi and Via. I love you guys so much and will miss you. Please come back to visit often and eat my food!

10 comments:

  1. I was also inspired by the smitten kitchen cake. Except that it's so freaking hot I have no desire to turn on the oven. We ate sandwiches yesterday and used the microwave for everything else. I'm usually obsessed with chocolate cake but I've been thinking about a mango upside down cake for a while. This orange curd looks yummy too.

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  2. Oh, and THREE HOURS?! Yeah, I hate you.

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  3. I love your cake, it looks so delicious....we too love the farmer's market and look forward to it every tuesday.

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  4. I rarely crave cake, but your orange frosting might convert me :)

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  5. Ahhhhhh... mas pelas fotos o seu bolo deve ter sido muito mais yummy do que o meu. :o) Parece ter sido uma tarde bem divertida com os seus amigos. Às vezes não precisa ser um dia extremamente especial para se comemorar, basta ser mais um dia feliz na nossa vida que já é o suficiente, não é?!
    Pode deixar que quando eu tiver mais receitas legais eu coloco no meu blog. Acho que se eu tiver tempo, quando eu começar o meu culinary arts course em setembro, eu vou fazer um blog especialmente para colocar as coisas legais que eu aprender.

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  6. Now this looks fantastic...

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  7. Betty Crocker is one of my best friends too. I'm surprised you don't like cakes much. Thats probably why you are so thin and I can't get rid of my baby fat stomach! I love cakes, and candy , and anything sweet! I loved your cake presentation though. would be prefect for one of those tea houses for dainty ladies that like simple fresh looking things. I thought it was very original and my mouth was watering. I make frosting a lot, and orange or lemon buttercream is yummy. I always have left overs and never hesitate to eat a lot of it!

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  8. Betty Crocker is one of my best friends too. I'm surprised you don't like cakes much. Thats probably why you are so thin and I can't get rid of my baby fat stomach! I love cakes, and candy , and anything sweet! I loved your cake presentation though. would be prefect for one of those tea houses for dainty ladies that like simple fresh looking things. I thought it was very original and my mouth was watering. I make frosting a lot, and orange or lemon buttercream is yummy. I always have left overs and never hesitate to eat a lot of it!

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  9. Sorry your friends are leaving. Our favorite thing about grad school has been all of the wonderful friends we've made. But then they all end up going somewhere else, like Japan or something. Looking forward to seeing you guys.

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