Orange Chocolate Swirl Tiger Cake

First, a few weeks ago marked the perfect occasion to bake – February 14. No, not Valentine’s Day, but Chinese New Year! An occasion for resolutions, reconciliation and wishes of a prosperous year full of luck, wealth and good fortune. And, this day being the start of the year of the Tiger! A good friend and coworker of mine from China also happened to have her Birthday just before Chinese New Year, so I was sold – let’s bake a cake... a tiger cake! For this occasion, I tested out the combination of an orange cake with the classic chocolate described in a past blog entry, swirled together and sealed underneath a layer of fondant with a tangy, sweet orange buttercream frosting. To up the potential tasty-factor of this cake, the orange cake and the butterceram frosting was flavored with oranges picked straight off the tree from my parent’s backyard in Arizona. I was lucky enough for my mom to visit me in Boston at the beginning of February and come bearing the seasonal Arizona gifts of home-grown grapefruit, lemons, and oranges. The cake was made from two 10 inch rounds, combining chocolate swirled with orange cake, using Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Perfect Party Cake’ (Published in her Baking: From My Home to Yours) as inspiration for the orange cake. Although Dorie’s recipe was heavily adapted, I find that her mixing and incorporation instructions are perfect as she described, and the combination of the ingredients as written below plus her technical advice (also written below) produces an amazing, beautiful cake with a fine, fluffy crumb, complete with a sweet, orange scent. One final note: This cake comes together with TWO cake recipes, the orange that follows (as written, one whole recipe), but also a half-recipe of the Decadent chocolate cake described in another blog here. To make this cake, prepare both recipe batters individually, grease and flour two 10 inch baking rounds, and alternate scooping each batter into the round (details to follow). This cake is also so delcious as it is without the swirling with chocolate cake, so it can be made and enjoyed as it is written.

Fragrant Orange Cake
3¼ tsp. orange zest
1½ Cup sugar
2¼ Cup + 1 tblsp cake flour
1 tblsp. Baking powder
½ tsp salt
1¼ Cup Half and Half
4 large egg whites
1 stick butter, unsalted, room temp
¼ Cup orange juice.

Heat the oven to 350. Spray two 10 inch baking rounds with cooking spray and coat with flour.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk. Combine the sugar and the orange zest in a separate, large bowl and rub together the orange zest and the sugar until the mixture is fragrant. Add the butter to the orange/sugar mixture and beat on medium-high with an electric mixer for 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light and airy (do not worry, you will not OVER beat!). Beat in the orange juice until thoroughly incorporated. Add one third of the flour mixture, and beat well on medium speed. Beat in half of the half and half/egg mixture. Then, beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, and once incorporated, beat in the remainder of the half and half/egg mixture until thoroughly mixed in. Beat in the remainder of the dry ingredients, and once incorporated, beat the entire mixture for an additional 2 minutes to fully aerate the batter. Alternate pouring the orange batter and the chocolate batter into each of the two rounds and swirl around a knife a few times in the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean; approximately 30-40 minutes.

After baking, this cake was sealed with an orange buttercream with oranges straight from the backyard tree, and covered with home made orange fondant.

Orange Buttercream:
½ C shortening
½ C Butter or margarine
1 dash salt
5¼ - 5½ C confectioner’s sugar
3 tsp orange zest
3-4 tblsp orange juice.

Cream butter and shortening and then add orange zest. Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed. Add orange juice 1 tblsp at a time and beat on high until blended and a consistency that suits your needs. Once the cake has cooled, fill the bottom layer with buttercream, and put top layer on the cake. Coat the stacked layers with the buttercream and let dry for at least a few hours before coating with fondant. The tiger stripes on the cake were made with chocolate fondant to finish it off.

Happy Birthday, YueYang, and Happy New Year! ☺