Recipe Archives->Cakes->Orange 15

Orange Cake
                                                                               
6 eggs, separated, room temp
zest of 2 oranges
1 1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate (good quality is important)

Butter three 9" cake pans and line with wax paper.  Preheat oven
to 325F.  Whisk together flour and salt.  Beat egg yolks till thick
and light. Add 1/2 cup honey, orange juice concentrate, and orange
zest and mix well.  Beat egg whites with cream of tartar to soft
peaks. Add 2 Tbsp honey and beat to stiff peaks.  Fold together
yolk mix and flour mix, then fold in whites.  Pour into prepared
pans, make a wide trough around the edge (run a couple fingers
around the edge), and bake until cake starts to shrink from edges,
about 25 minutes. Set pans on racks to cool 5 minutes, then turn
out and remove wax paper.

Fill with orange curd and frost with thick-whipped cream.


Orange Curd
                                                                               
2 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
scant 1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup honey)
zest of 1 1/2 oranges
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk eggs, sugar, and zest together in a non-reactive sauce pan
till light. Add orange juice concentrate and butter. Cook, whisking,
over medium heat until the butter is melted. Then whisk constantly
until thickened and just starts to simmer. Scrape out with a spatula;
strain through a medium sieve. Let cool, cover, and refrigerate to
thicken.


Thick-whipped Cream

Heavy cream whipped in the food processor thickens but incorporates
very little air, so it's much denser, thick enough for frosting a
cake, but still much lighter than a buttercream. Flavor 2 cups heavy
cream with 2 Tbsp maple syrup.

You could also zest the remaining half orange; heat the cream just
to simmer and pour over the zest, chill overnight, and strain before
whipping. Just be careful not to overbeat - in the food processor
it just takes a few seconds too long for the cream to separate.

(Or skip the separate filling and just use the whipped cream--but
then I'd definitely flavor it with orange zest, maybe 1 orange's
worth per cup of heavy cream.)

Printable version: orange15.txt.