For the past few weeks, I was baking everyday... well except if I ran out of ingredients, which by the way makes me restless and somewhat anxious.
It started when an aunt came for my grandfather's funeral and stayed with us. At the stretch of her stay, I guess she was feeling homesick and wanted us to taste how they cook in the US, she took over the kitchen from my mom. One of the things she made was Banana Bread. The whole process was a no-brainer, just dump everything in a bowl then turn on the electric hand mixer, place it in the oven and wait until the whole house smelled like sweet buttery bread with bananas.
After my aunts left, we had an unusual excess of instant oatmeal and bananas nearing expiration. My mom and dad ordered (yes, ordered) me to make use of them. I baked before, mostly cookies and red velvet cupcakes as my sister's give-aways during holidays, and since I'm their housed bored bum, I was happy to oblige. Batch after batch of cookies and breads being made, I got hooked. I tried to improve their flavor by adding spices and whatnots, so far, nobody really complained other than sometimes the goodies were on the sweeter side of the spectrum. And I guess the best compliment would be that just a few hours after I'm done baking them, they disappear.
So came the week of my birthday, I asked mom if I could make my own cake. She said OK and lent me her recipe book. You've got to love those old molten yellowish type-written sheets with scribbles, it's a sign that the recipe is a tried and tested one. I was checking out the kitchen cabinets and found a Wilton Deluxe Tip Set, which apparently was given to us by my cousin from the US. Thanks very much cuz! :)
So I made my very first legit cake. It was an Orange Chiffon Cake with Orange Marmalade filling and Orange Frosting. I think I went overboard with the orange, but mom said it's best not to experiment much on the flavors. Though it was a refreshing taste, the orange cake needed a bit of contrast. The bottled marmalade as filling (mom wanted the marmalade filling) and thick frosting (I didn't have a proper metal spatula) made the sweetness level too overwhelming. Should've trusted my own instinct and made a bittersweet ganache as frosting and just a small batch of not-too-sweet buttercream icing for decorating.
Anyway, said and done The only thing left for me to do is to decorate the cake. I added a mix of yellow and red McCormick food color in the frosting which resulted into a nice orange color. After covering the whole cake, there was still a cup of frosting left, so I gambled by adding cocoa powder and created a dark hue of brown. I was trying to create spirals covering the entire cake and small flowers which turned out difficult since I had chopped orange zest pieces in the frosting. :(
So, after much huff & puff:
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| Forgive the picture, taken by a very tired baker at 12mn. |
Not bad for my first try right? My boyfriend said it looked really good and was almost arabesque in design. That made me smile, at least that's one of the very few happy things that happened during my birthday. I guess I've become too much of an uncool hermit that people forgot about me and all they wanted is the cake. Sigh.
FRUIT FLAVORED CHIFFON CAKE
INGREDIENTS
*Makes one 8x12-3inch pan.
*Works well with pineapple, orange and mango.
Batter:
8 egg yolks
2 ½ cup cake flour
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup fruit juice diluted
½ cup corn oil
1 ½ tbsp baking powder
Egg White Mixture:
8 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ cup sugar
PROCEDURE
(note: grease the pan with margarine and line with wax paper)
1. Pre-heat the oven at 350F 15 minutes prior to actual baking.
2. Separate the egg yolk and egg whites.
3. Sift the dry ingredients.
4. Mix in bowl the egg yolks, sugar, flour, oil, liquid and etc. Beat until smooth. Set batter aside.
5. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar. Adding sugar slowly until stiff, but not dry.
6. Fold in the batter to the beaten egg white mixture using spatula.
7. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until done.
ORANGE MARMALADE FILLING
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
PROCEDURE
1. Mix marmalade and walnuts well. Spread on middle layer.
ORANGE FROSTING DELUXE
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 pound (about 4 cups) confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp grated orange rind
1 tbsp orange juice
1 egg
PROCEDURE
1. Cream butter until softened; add 1/3 of the sugar and beat well.
2. Add in salt, orange rind and juice while beating.
3. Beat in egg until smooth and fluffy.
4. Add remaining sugar, a little at a time, beating after each addition. If too thick, add a tsp of orange juice, more if needed.
Yes, I'm thinking what you are thinking, raw egg in frosting? I feared the same, so far, nothing happened to anyone who ate a piece of the cake. If ever I'll be making frosting though, this would be my last option. I wanted to try the buttercream frosting found in Wilton's website, but Crisco shortening is a bit expensive here; I looked for vegetable lard but it seemed to be out of stock the time I went to the store.
Try it if you like, but I would recommend cutting down on the frosting or trying a different frosting all together.
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