Orange Chiffon Cake with Orange Swiss Buttercream

It was my girlfriend's birthday celebration this past weekend in Amador Wine County. I wanted a light, not-too-sweet cake as we would be consuming lots of wine. I used the Orange Chiffon Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes, by Elinor Klivans and amended my go to Swiss buttercream with some orange extract. I used two 6 inch cake pans and torted the layers, which means I cut both in half. Torting can give a cake impressive height and make room for yummy fillings. Top it off with some royal icing flowers and this was an exceptional little treat.

Orange Chiffon Cupcake Recipe by Elinor Klivans.

1 ½ cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
4 large eggs separated
1/3 cup water
1 ½ grated orange zest
¼ cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare cupcake pans.

1. Sift the cake flour, ¾ cup of the sugar, the baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Using a large spoon, make a well in the center of the flour mixture and put in the yolks, oil, water, zest, orange juice and vanilla and almond extracts in the well.
2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the mixture until smooth and thick, about 3 minutes.
3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.
4. Set aside.
5. In another large bowl. With clean beaters, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until the whites are foamy and the cream of tartar dissolves.
6. Beat on high speed until the egg whites look shiny and smooth and the beaters form lines in the mixture; if you stop the mixer and lift up the beaters, the egg whites should cling to the beaters.
7. Slowly beat in the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat for one minute.
8. Stir in about one third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
10. Bake for about 35 minutes, until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 4

Tonight's class was roses, sweet peas, leaves and ribbons. Four hours later, I want to rip my hair out over those damn roses. My buttercream was either not stiff enough or too warm. The rose would come out decent and then melt on the cake. I scraped more crap off this cake then you want to know; then busted out that mess in about 30 seconds of rage. But it turned out decent. Decent for a 14-year-old, but I am impressed with my wavy lines. Those rock. I do know how to make awesome leaves and even better sweet peas, but my temper got the best of me tonight. I will master roses, ones that keep their shape after 10 minutes of Sacramento heat. Think of it as something to look forward to.

By request and a little bit of a challenge, this week's cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. All homemade, all one big pain in the ass.

Lastly, being the masochist that I am, I signed up for Class 2, Royal Icing. The good news? You only make one cake.

Oh yeah, I got these: A certificate of merit and Wilton Yearbook. Yippee!

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 3

Class 3 is shells, large dots, star flowers, twist flowers and clowns. The clowns are actually pretty awesome, but they didn't mesh with the look of my cake. We also learned to stripe the buttercream. I made both a peach and yellow batch of buttercream. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with yellow and filled the remainder with peach. That is how I got the two-toned flowers to be so beautiful. For the shell border, I painted a bag with white buttercream and used a yellow filler.

For round two, I decided to get fancy with the inside of the cake. I used fresh-picked peaches from Rob's sister's tree. I blended some peaches and then strained them through a coffee filter. I brushed the peach juice on the layers of the cake and added about 1/4 cup of juice to the swiss buttercream recipe. A layer of fresh peaches and swiss buttercream held the two layers together.

I got rave reviews on this cake. We're talking screams of delight from everyone who had the pleasure of tasting it. I thought it could use even more peaches, so I would suggest torting the cake and having multiple layers. Also, because of the peaches, this cake should be refrigerated and let come to room temperature before serving.

Wilton Cake Decorating: Course 1, Class 2

Course 1, Class 2 is stars, wavy lines, dots, writing and piping stars into a shape. Ta-dah!

Note: Funfetti is quite the crowd pleaser. The key is to follow the box instructions and beat on low for 2 minutes. Soft beating produces a moist delicious cake that rivals any homemade concoction. Plus, its got confetti in the cake!