Another Seventh Day Bake

This is the second installation of my seventh day bake.  Since its the Chinese New Year (CNY), I decided to balance the earlier Chocolate Layer Cake with something more colourful, as the Chinese has this taboo against wearing black or dark sombre colours during CNY, particularly so when the seventh day marks everyone's birthday.  I'm not sure if presenting a dark coloured cake falls under this category, but I'm not taking any chances, especially when gambling is involved, and all my aunts are so-called high rollers regular gamblers.  By the way, gambling is how we bond with family and friends especially during the CNY (or any time throughout the year !).

For this purpose, I decided to experiment with an orange layer cake, filled with mandarin oranges, peaches, blueberries and raspberries, and frosted inside and outside with lemon buttercream.  What a combo.  But it turned out to be such a refreshing cake, which is much welcomed after a full 9 course Chinese dinner.

This recipe (adapted from the Perfect Party Cake recipe) had come to me via Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

You will need:

For the cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp grated orange zest
115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp pure orange extract

For the frosting:
230 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
Rind of 1 lemon

For the filling/finishing:
Adequate mandarin oranges,  raspberries and blueberries, for the filling
Adequate peaches, raspberries and blueberries, for decoration
Adequate almond flakes, lightly toasted

Preparation:

To prepare the cake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 180 deg C.  Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and orange zest in a mixer bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up.

To prepare the buttercream frosting:
Beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until white as possible, and then beat in the sifted icing sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice in two batches until light and fluffy.

To assemble the cake:
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.

Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with the buttercream. Gently press the mandarin oranges onto the cream. Top with another layer, spread with the buttercream, and again gently press the blueberries onto the buttercream.  Top with another layer, and again gently press the raspberries onto the buttercream.  Finally, place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the buttercream to frost the sides and top.

Pat the almond flakes all over the sides of the cake, and top the cake with the peaches, raspberries and blueberries.  Dust some snow sugar all over the top of the cake, if desired.