Yummy Simple Cake

 Super Delicious Hint of Orange Cake

This is probably the simplest recipe for an amazing tasting cake.

When I was 12 or 13, I went to the CNE with my friend. We entered all manner of contests, particularly at the food building. A few weeks later, I received a package in the mail from St. Lawrence Starch Company. Exciting! It contained all kinds of goodies...corn oil, corn syrup, and a cookbook.

At the time, we lived in a subdivision in the outskirts, and my parents worked in the city, so I often made dinner and desserts for when they got home. I could hardly wait to try some of the new recipes with my free products. The most interesting to me was this cake recipe.

I lost the recipe for quite a while, then remembered I had submitted it to a church cookbook in the mid 60’s. After asking around, I finally retrieved the recipe so I’m now writing it out so that I might keep it safe.

3/4 cup shortening (I used butter)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 egg yolks (save whites for later)

2 1/4 cup flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup cold water

1 tbsp grated orange rind

3 egg whites stiffly beaten

Beat together shortening, sugar and egg yolks until very fluffy and light coloured. Sift flour, baking powder, an salt together and add alternately with orange juice and water.

Beat well after each addition. Stir in orange rind and fold in beaten egg whites.

Bake in spring form pan 350 for 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown. Size of pan depends on how many layers you want to make this into. Larger for two layers, smaller for three. Make buttercream frosting and use filling of your choice for layers.

Birthday Cake

I used buttercream frosting and filling with chocolate shavings (chocolate goes great with orange). You could use prepared frosting in a can if desired. I tossed some sprinkles on the outside of the cake. I was sorry I used a premade tube for the lettering on top...it ran and the letters spread, but oh well...cake tasted fantastic. 

                                                                                                                    

This is the original cookbook and the cake with fondant Garfield. 

***Today I learned that you can't paint fondant. I used white and painted it with food colouring because the store was out of orange. It didn't dry and was somewhat messy and challenging to assemble.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or Just Mutant Cake?

For the last two years, my son has asked me to make him a cake. Seems like no big deal, except that he's allergic to dairy products. He didn't want just any cake. He requested a chocolate, Ninja Turtle Cake decorated with either Raphael or Casey Jones. After two years of thinking about it from time to time, I have made a decision. It's his birthday. He will finally have his cake.

I couldn't promise a professional job. In fact, I couldn't promise much of anything except my best effort. Last night, I watched a t.v. programme. Pastry chefs were building cakes. One collapsed. Even they experience failure.

I have researched decorating techniques and I've even had a mini fondant lesson from one of the employees at Bulk Barn. It was then that I decided to avoid fondant. Besides, the accessories alone would have cost me more than the price of a professional tiered wedding cake. I also decided not to use the Ninja Turtle pan which was available for rent. I couldn't see myself dotting an entire cake with little squeezes of icing in a variety of colours. My idea was this. I would make a round cake, make the top look like a pizza and make a Raphael figurine to sit on top...or maybe at the side.

The chocolate cake was the easy part...or so I thought. Real cocoa contains no dairy. Vegetable shortening is a substitute for butter. The 35 minute baking time suggested in the recipe was inaccurate. I used up a box of toothpicks testing the cake which baked for over an hour. I was tired.

As I looked at the cakes, I wished my son had asked for a lunar landing or perhaps a volcano cake. I had created two uneven cratered slabs of carbs, sugar and fat. They smelled good, but they looked like this.

After they cooled, I cut the top off one to even it and used it as the bottom layer. I sliced the other in half and filled both layers with some icing tinted with cocoa. The cake was still crooked.

I created white frosting and covered the whole cake. Then I made a pizza on top....a Ninja Turtle staple....pepperoni, cheese, black olives, green peppers...passable.

Finally, I built Raphael out of marzipan and painted him. He will hopefully remain upright although the toothpick has become my new best friend. I might have to use one to attach him to the cake. I also reinforced his head with a toothpick but noticed his shell appeared to be shrinking and that his body was developing a bit of an incline as the food colouring "paint" dried.

This is what the cake looked like finished. I even transported it to my son's and it remained intact. Despite the fact that hubby said my turtle looks like the Koodo telephone guy, I think my effort is respectable.

The cake was a success and tasted excellent. I have decided I'd like to take a cake decorating course.  Perhaps I can even unlock the mystery of fondant.