Next up from our Antique Recipe Collection is Orange Cream Cake.  I went into this recipe thinking it looked complicated, but it was actually very easy and came together quick (as long as you have a stand mixer and a hand mixer).  The recipe gives no indication of what kind of pan to bake it in, oven temperature, or how long to bake so I stumbled through those parts (successfully).

I chose this recipe because I like oranges and it sounded interesting.  Come to find out, as I was reading through the recipe it only uses orange extract in the frosting.  I will try to make it even more orange-y by adding fresh orange zest.

Other then orange extract (which I still had from my Daffodil Cake recipe) all the other ingredients are simple one I always have on hand.  The recipe is broken up into two parts.  The cake and the buttercream frosting.  I will start with the cake.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment I place 3 egg whites (reserving the yolks).  I set that to medium high to start whisking and slowly pour in 1/3 cup of sugar.  I let the mixer whisk that for 5 minutes or so until soft peaks formed.

In a separate bowl I place the 3 egg yolks and began mixing (using a hand held mixer)  them with a 1/2 cup milk and 2/3 cup of sugar.  Once combined I add 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Next I add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened butter.

This was the point I started to think this recipe would fail.  I basically was looking at cookie dough and I was having a hard time picturing a light and fluffy cake- but I had forgotten my egg whites!

I take the egg whites and scrape them into the other bowl with batter.  Using a spatula I folded the egg whites into the batter and was astonished to see the cake batter look perfect.

Without any antique recipe guidance for how to bake this batter I settled on splitting the dough between my two small antique cake pans.  The same way I did with my Old Time Chocolate Cake recipe.  This way I could make a round two layer cake with some extra frosting in the middle.

I felt safest baking at 350 degrees and began checking on it at 20 minutes.  It turned out 30 minutes was perfect and the cakes came out of the oven to rest in the pans on the counter while I make the frosting.

So I decided to change the frosting recipe since it required raw eggs.  I am not really scared of the raw eggs because I have eaten enough raw cookie dough to actually feel ashamed writing that, but I do have small kids and only regular grocery store eggs on hand at the moment.  I also wanted to make it more orange-y so I decided to add orange zest as well.

To make the buttercream I cleaned out my stand mixer bowl then added a stick of softened butter and began mixing it with 3 cups powdered sugar.  Next I add 3 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon orange extract.  Finally I toss in the zest of one large orange.

I mix them for a few minutes until it resembles frosting.  This was actually my first homemade frosting that was successful, so I was pretty happy about that.  It was also very simple- no more running to my mom’s house to steal a can of her frosting for my experiments.

I spread a layer of frosting on top of one cake and put the other cake on top of that.

Then with the patience of a 3 year old I tried to frost the cake while muttering curse words the whole time because I can’t for the life of me make desserts look pretty.  I learned a while ago not to let the kids in the kitchen when I am trying to finish a dessert. Someday I will get someone to teach me how bakeries make cupcakes look perfect.

Next up was maniac taste testing.  Since the word “cake” appears in the title and not something with quinoa I was pretty confident I was going to be happy with their reaction.  As I anticipated they devoured the Orange Cream Cake.  Not only did they get to taste test cake in the middle of the afternoon they asked me to make milk shakes to go with it.  I don’t know what is wrong with these maniacs.  I thought I would be champion for giving them cake and I quickly just turned into the guy that said “NO” to milk shakes!  I won’t tell them now, but milk shakes was actually a pretty awesome idea.

Another antique recipe made and again I am really glad I took the time to try it.  Once my orange extract runs out I will probably try substituting fresh orange juice and zest in its place.   I am also wondering if getting some zest into the cake batter could make this even more like a Orange Cream Cake.