Orange Slice Extravaganza

Triple-layer Orange Cream Cheese Cake, Cream Cheese Filling, Cream Cheese Orange Buttercream Frosting, and a Garnish of Fresh Orange Slices

This Orange Cream Cheese Layer Cake was completely delicious… and it nearly didn’t happen.

Late on Saturday night, I asked my life partner to run to the market for some oranges.  The thought of a delicious orange cake suddenly sounded amazing.  Bright and early Sunday morning I realized I had forgotten to ask for 16oz/2 c of yogurt or sour cream (it’s an important ingredient of my Orange Layer Cake).  Gaaah.

However, I knew I had 8oz/1 c buttermilk and 175gr cream cheese… would this work?  The science of this cake required a heavy dairy, so just maybe this was an acceptable work around.

I whisked the buttermilk and cream cheese together.

The consistency looked fantastic and tasted very much like sour cream.  I’m writing this baking hack down!

The rest of the cake went together like this.

Orange zest and fresh orange juice is essential to the flavor of this cake – which is sweet and delicious.

I don’t usually add parchment paper circles to the 6″ rounds…but, I probably should.

And cupcakes!  I found this stand at We Love Cupcakes, a catering service in Frankfurt.  I love the way my Fiesta Large Bistro Bowl in Poppy looks with these oranges… the colors are fantastic.

The build went together with my favorite cream cheese frosting – it’s rich and creamy.

The buttercream for the outer layer of the cake was made with a 2:1 butter to cream cheese.  Adding a tiny bit of orange and coloring is just the right touch for the exterior.

The beautiful oranges were ideal for this design.  The slices needed to be very thin so they would bend around the cake and stay in place.  In order to keep the buttercream in tact, I toweled away some of the juice from each slice.  Think about the acid and the butter getting together…

I can’t get enough of these colors!

I was very please with the final look.

There was a liberal dispensing of gold stars for editing myself.  I thought about adding orange slices to the top of the cake…then stopped.  The simple elegant design is enough just like this.

Using my Fiesta Dinnerware was fantastic!  The Teapot and Carafe in Tangerine are terrific accent pieces for showcasing color.

What a great day to bake and design cake.

It’s only cake, but I like knowing I’m flexible enough to figure a workaround when I don’t have all the ingredients the recipe calls for.  In that case.. “make a new recipe.”   There’s always a solution, it simply needs to be found.

I’m lucky to be sober and engaged in a meaningful relationship with my life partner.

I’m lucky to have our amazing people.