Orange Cake

I am a baker. And for my mom’s birthday this year, I wanted to make a stellar cake to help her second pandemic birthday be something special. Her only request was “I want it to be orange flavored.”

I looked around, but didn’t find many recipes for inspiration, so I improvised.

I started with King Arthur’s Classic Birthday Cake recipe. I modified it by reducing the amount of vanilla extract to 1 tsp, and added 1 tbsp of their delicious Fiori di Sicilia.

Once the cakes were baked, I decided to use a jar of Bonne Maman Marmalade as the filling. The whole jar was just the perfect amount!

What I’m particularly proud of is the icing. I made a modified version of King Arthur’s Italian Buttercream icing. While their version calls for a simple syrup, I improvised. First, I took 250 ml of Orange Juice, and added 100 ml of sugar to this (to roughly approximate the 361 grams of simple syrup called for in the recipe). I then threw in 5 cloves, and 2 cinnamon sticks, and simmered it for 15 minutes to dissolve the sugar and thicken up. Once this orange syrup was made, I used a tea strainer to separate any particulate, and let it cool.

I wasn’t sure if this would work, as I could foresee the acids in the juice not working well with the meringue powder. Much to my delight, the meringue whipped up perfectly! I completed the icing, adding some more Fiori di Sicilia (1 tsp), plus 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/8 tsp almond extract to round out the flavor profile, along with some food color to get that perfect orange color.

The result is a deliciously spicy orange cake. The marmalade adds some lovely complexity, but the real star is the icing: the clove that I boiled in the orange syrup is subtle, but present, adding some truly lovely notes to the cake. Would absolutely bake again