Pumpkin and Spice

I hope that you all had a great Mother's Day weekend- I hope you all treated your moms well, showered them with love and gifts and let them know how fab they are. I gave my mom a call, but since she's coming to visit this coming weekend (Yay!) we're postponing our Mother's Day celebrating until then. I'm super-excited about the present I got her, because I know she'll love it, but she reads my blog (hi, Mom!) so I can't say what it is yet!

Kyle's mother lives about three miles away from us, so we did celebrate with her. Of course, I baked her a cake. I decided that I wanted to decorate her cake in an orange color scheme, because I think that Kyle's mom looks beautiful when she wears oranges. (Not many people do, but it's a great color on her.) Since the outside was going to be orange, it made sense to make the cake orange flavored as well.

This cake is a chiffon cake, which is one of my favorite kinds of cake. Chiffon cake is unique, because it uses oil instead of butter, and a good portion of the leavening in the cake comes from folding in whipped egg whites. The result is a cross between a traditional cake and a sponge cake- light, delicate and not too rich. My cake is flavored with orange juice and zest, as well as orange extract. A touch of vanilla rounds the flavors out and brings a nice balance.

The cake is baked into two layers, which I split to make four layers. Each layer was brushed with orange syrup, prior to being filled, to add moisture and flavor. The cake was then iced with a simple buttercream, which I lightly flavored with orange extract. Dispite all the layers of orange, the flavor of the cake was light and fresh, and not at all over whelming.

I made two 8" round layers, and had enough batter left to make six cupcakes, though you could also make two 9" layers, with no leftover batter. The cupcakes I iced with the same icing, then rolled them in golden-yellow decorating sugar and topped them with a gummy orange slice.

Orange Chiffon Cake
makes two 9" layers, or two 8" layers and 6 cupcakes

• 10 oz cake flour
• 8 oz sugar
• 1T baking powder
• 5 oz canola or vegetable oil
• 5 egg yolks
• 6 oz orange juice
• 1t vanilla extract
• 2t orange extract
• zest of one orange
• 7 egg whites (be sure there are no traces of yolk)
• 1/2t cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 300F. Prepare two cake pans by cutting parchement circles to fit the bottom of the pans. Grease the bottom of the pan enough to stick the parchment to the bottom. Do not grease the sides, as that will hinder the cake's ability to rise properly.
Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the oil, juice, extracts and zest to the dry ingredients and mix.
In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar to stiff peaks. What do stiff peaks look like? This.
Add about 1/3 of the whipped whites to the batter mixture and mix to lighten the batter. Add another 1/3 of the whites and carefully fold them in, being careful to not deflate the whites. Fold in the final 1/3 of the whites, and immediately divide between the pans.
Bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched (your finger shouldn't leave a dent in the top) and a skewer comes out clean. Invert pans on wire cooling racks and allow to cool before running a knife around the edge and removing the cake.

Orange Simple Syrup
makes one cup

• 1c orange juice
• 1c granulated sugar

In a small saucepan, heat juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

Orange Simple Buttercream

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/2c shortening
• 2lb confectioner's sugar
• 2t orange extract
• Orange juice, as needed

Whip together butter and shortening until well blended. Add confectioner's sugar and extract. Whip until light and fluffy. Add orange juice as needed to reach desired consistancy.

Cake Assembly

Trim cake layers to level, and to remove any dry, crusty edges. Split each layer in half. Lay down one layer of cake, brush generously with 1/4 of the orange syrup. Allow the syrup to soak in, then spread with about 1/4" of the frosting. Repeat with remaining layers. When you get to the last layer, ice the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting- you should be able to see cake through the frosting. (This is called the crumb coat- it keeps crumbs from getting into your frosting when it's time to decorate the cake.) Refridgerate until the crumb coat is firm. Frost cake and decorate as desired.