Orange Butter Cake

No, my Kitchenaid stand mixer problem is not resolved. But I really, really wanted to try this cake. You can tell by the ingredients list that it's very rich (translation: bad for my butt), and should be superb for those of us who are citrus fans. So, off to the box drawer, where I found my trusty 1979 model GE hand mixer. Isn't it a beauty in that harvest gold? When I found hubby dearest, I found a nearly unequipped kitchen. So, even before we married, I dragged him off to Bradlees, where he magnanimously agreed to let me purchase a pyrex loaf pan, a pyrex 9x13 pan, 2 cookie sheets, a 1 cup pyrex measuring cup, this mixer, and a blender, which, sadly, bit the dust in 2003. It's Oster's fault, really; that blender had a hard plastic base, which, after 24 years of service, cracked too badly to continue. Now, the jar on that blender was plastic, also, which meant that it was scratched, and once my husband tried to blend something with a spoon in it, causing the spoon to fly upward and put a lovely hole in the plastic top of the blender, but it was a good appliance. The trusty hand mixer, however, and all the pyrex and cookie sheets are still with me. So, onward with the cake!

I found this recipe in the newspaper, and made virtually no changes.

ORANGE BUTTER CAKE

Cake:

2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. grated orange rind
1/2 cup orange juice
2-1/2 cups flour
3-3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans. Cream butter, adding the sugar 1/4 cup at a time, until it's all combined, with mixer at medium high speed.. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the orange rind, and mix completely. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the orange juice. Then beat in half the flour, powder and salt, followed by the milk and the balance of the flour. Beat until smooth, and pour into the pans. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool completely. Frost with this frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 pounds confectioner's sugar

Beat together the butter, rind and half the juice. Add the confectioners sugar a cup at a time, and mix well. Add the remainder of the juice as it's needed.

Now, assemble this beauty!

Place one layer on the serving platter. Put at least 1 cup of frosting on it, and stack the second layer on top. Frost the top and sides of the cake. I refrigerated it, because of the high butter content, and to harden up the frosting a bit.

This first piece went to Jeffrey, and he struggled to finish it. (Maybe the pork roast, rice and salad contributed to that difficulty; I make no representations in that regard.) Everyone else except my husband had smaller pieces, and some of us couldn't finish ours. There's enough left for dessert tonight, so I'd guess I'll get somewhere between 16 and 20 servings out of this cake. It was, as I had hoped, splendid! Heavy, rich, delectable! I'll certainly make it again when the weather's cooler again.