Honey's Engagement cake (Orange cake)

                                                               The making of
                                                       Honey's Engagement Cake
                                                 ( Orange Cake; the Sicilian way)

It is a very refreshing cake, with all the flavor and freshness of Oranges. I'd made this cake for my nephew Honey's Engagement party. I'd added some raisins and candied peel too but I've made it without these ingredients also and it is superb every time! Here is how I made it for the engagement party --


Ingredients:- 
(A) Cake:    1.  Flour- 500 gm.;    2.  Butter- A)-salted-300gm, B)-unsalted-200gm;    3.  Castor sugar-500gm;    4.  Eggs- 8, medium;    5.  Buttermilk or curds- 100gm;    6.  Baking powder- 5 tsp. (level);    
7.  Finely grated orange rind-3 1/2 tsp.( I'm fond of orange flavor so I used 4tsp.);    8.  Freshly squeezed orange juice- 140 ml.    9.  Orange peel, candied- 50gm.(chopped);    10.  Golden raisins, big, chopped in half- 100gm. 
(B) Icing:    1.  White butter, unsalted- 250gm.(preferably fresh and home-made);    2.  Icing sugar- 375gm.;    3.  Almond essence- 1/2 tsp.;     
 4.  Orange essence- 11/2 tsp.;    5.  Fresh orange juice- 2-3 Tbsp.(may be required if the icing seems too stiff).

(C) Decoration: Some fondant roses and leaves that can be prepared a few days in advance 
and, some white butter-icing, as is used for icing the cake.














Method:- 
(A) CAKE:-  1. Set oven temp. at 165 c and, prepare a 10 inch tube pan and a 7 inch pan by greasing and double lining.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together 3-4 times to mix nicely and, keep aside. Mix orange juice and curds and keep aside till required.
3. Cream butter (at room temp.) and sugar  till light and fluffy, for about 6-8 min. Add eggs, one at a time and beat for at least 1 min. after adding each egg. If the mixture starts curdling, add 1T of flour along with each egg to counter this effect.








4. Once all the eggs have been mixed nicely, add grated orange rind and then sprinkle flour and mix gently, alternating with juice-curds mixture, in 4 installments,
ending with flour. Lastly, fold-in the raisins and peel. 
5. Pour in the prepared pans ( filling them slightly over half) and bake in the pre-heated oven, on the middle shelf, till done. The bigger cake will take will take more than 1 hr. but the smaller one should be done in about 45-50 minutes. But it is always best to check by inserting a clean and dry skewer in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done but if there is wet batter sticking to it, leave it in the oven only and keep checking aftr every 10 min.

6. Once the cakes are baked, leave them in the pans only, to cool.  
        












(B) Icing:- 1.While the cakes are cooling, prepare butter icing. Beat together fresh white butter and icing sugar till they are pale and smooth. Add almond and orange essence and mix nicely. 
2. Once the cakes are cool, take them out of their pans and remove butter paper and start the process of icing. First of all prepare the cakes for icing by leveling their surfaces with the help of a large bread knife.
3. After leveling, invert the cakes as the undersides are smoother and give a better finish to the icing. Invert the bigger cake on the serving platter itself but the smaller one on another flat plate as they have to be crumb-coated and iced separately and then put together.
4. For crumb-coating, apply a thin layer of the prepared butter-icing all over the cake with the help of a long-bladed broad knife or spatula, starting with sides and doing the top last of all. If any crumbs stick to the knife, wipe it with a paper towel; don't scrape it on the side of the icing bowl as the crumbs may get mixed in your icing and spoil the finish later.
5. After applying the crumb-coat, cover and refrigerate the cakes for 1-2 hrs. This is done to seal the crumbs so that you get a smooth icing later.
6. After 1-2 hrs. take out the cakes from the fridge and apply butter icing, at room temp. You can use cream icing also. I used butter icing because the cake had to be transported from Jhansi to Lucknow, a more than 7hrs. journey by road and, the weather was not very cold so I needed an icing that would not spoil.
   Start applying the icing with a big spatula or knife. Apply on the sides first and then on the top. Scrape the knife lightly all-over, on the sides as well on the top, to smoothen. 

7. To do the final smoothing of icing dipa steel knife in warm water, wipe it and then run it all over the cake. When all the icing has been applied, put the cakes back in the fridge, covered, for another half hour to let the icing 'set'.














Decoration:-    Put the smaller cake on top of the bigger one. Smoothen the icing around its bottom edge if required and then,use the same butter icing and an icing gun to decorate as per your choice. After that arrange the flowers and leaves and the cake is ready! 

     I'd had to take the cake to Lucknow by road so, I packed the iced cakes in boxes and carried the butter icing, icing gun, flowers and leaves etc. along and did the re-touching to icing and decorated the cake after reaching Lko. in the evening.
    I'd made the flowers a few days in advance; baked the cake on 24 Nov. evening; crumb-coated and iced it on 25 Nov. as we had to start on the morning of 26th. The Engagement was on 26th evening.
    The cake was an instant success and, after I'd spent so much time making roses in white and different shades of pink, it was difficult to see it being demolished within 5 minutes! But the compliments I received were enough to make me forget all that!

   














If you are not extremely short of time, try making it to celebrate some occasion and see the joy on the faces of eaters! 




                                                                            


                                                                           Enjoy!