Recipe: Orange Chocolate Cake
Y’all, what a year. I always feel like I have so much explaining to do when I pop back up on this blog once or twice a year, but I have nothing to really say for myself this time, except that in late February of last year, a big-time Korean Instagrammer stopped by my humble little shop, and very quietly and inconspicuously proceeded to blow up my bakery business. In a good way. By March, business had doubled, and by July, it had quadrupled. It was a rollercoaster ride of a year, and I spent pretty much the whole rest of 2021 just trying to hang on for dear life and keep up with the onslaught of orders and walk-in business that was coming my way. I had very little time for anything else, especially faffing about with photos for fun, and the last thing I wanted to do in my (increasingly limited) free time was bake something.
Business is still good, but with the help of a new, much larger oven, and a baptism-by-fire crash course in baking time management, things feel a lot more stable now. And after a year of feeling mostly like a cupcake-making robot, I feel quite itchy to get my hands dirty with some non work-related baking projects. That having been said, sometimes baking is still the last thing I want to do on my days off, so I feel like it’s necessary to warn you that the focus of this blog will probably be shifting a bit over the coming year. There are other reasons for the shift, which I think I will share more about as time goes on, but suffice it to say that this will hopefully be a very important year for me in terms of thinking about my future and what I want to do going forward.
Keeping a baking blog is harder than I thought it would be. I, for one, would rather die than write 1,000ish words of baking instructions, more or less the same, every single time I post a recipe. I think most bakers have the general ideas down already if they’re looking for recipes, and there’s not much about the ratio of baking powder to baking soda in a recipe, to name just one example, that I can explain better than literally anyone else on the internet. It’s just not the kind of shit I like to write (or read, for that matter). I have a lot of love for food as a part of culture, and ingredients, and the way that I think food represents a very important part of our humanity. But it feels increasingly difficult to sit down and find a way to somehow tie a recipe for orange chocolate cake, for example, to something that’s currently going on in my life or some bigger, overarching theme. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying. But at the stage I’m at in life, currently, and considering the urge I have to move back toward a certain type of writing, I just feel like I need more wiggle room. Thrashing room? We will see.
I don’t really know what’s coming. That’s probably the thing I’m working the hardest on at the moment, in my personal life, is being okay with the unknown and accepting the fact that this year is going to largely be about flying by the seat of my pants and feeling my way through the dark, while trying to keep a sense of wonder and curiosity at the forefront, as opposed to fear.
I am making at least some few small attempts to keep the chaos in check, however, and have set up a few different situations to aid in that. I think this blog will be kept mostly for making — making cakes, making recipes, making other things with my hands, as well as some personal updates. But I also want to get back into more theoretical/cultural writing, especially on topics related to women, gender and feminism, and for that type of shit, you should come find me on Medium. I’ll be posting short-form updates about anything I’m posting anywhere, as well as probably more frequent, less important general goings-on on Instagram. And if you’re interested in a general mishmash of all of my long-form nonsense, you can sign up for my email list at Substack, where I think I will just go ahead and make a chaotic mess of everything, because technically, you’re asking for it.
Now that I’ve sufficiently buried the lead with several paragraphs, I’ll go ahead and at least say this: barring some god-forbidden, unforeseen disaster, this will probably be my last year in Korea. After 14 and a half years, in early 2023, I plan to move home.
So about that orange chocolate cake….
Orange Chocolate Cake
Notes
This cake will keep up to three days at room temperature if the weather isn’t too warm, and a little longer in the fridge if you prefer. It freezes well for up to a month, as long as you store it in an airtight container.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups ap flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger (optional)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup butter
- 3 eggs
- zest and juice of two large oranges
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3/4 cup whole milk
Frosting:
- 2 cups butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1-3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C) and grease and line two 8-inch cake pans.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger if you’re using it. Set aside.
- In large bowl or your stand mixer, add the butter and the sugar and cream them together until the mixture is pale and well mixed, about 2-3 minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time while mixing. Mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the orange zest, orange juice and vanilla while mixing. Mix just until combined.
- Scrape down the bowl and add about a third of the flour blend. Mix until the flour is barely incorporated and add half the milk. Repeat this alternating the flour with the milk and scraping down the bowl as needed until everything is added and the cake is well mixed. You’ll want to mix as little as possible during this stage, and don’t worry too much about small lumps. Overmixing will cause more problems than undermixing!
- Pour the batter, evenly divided, into the two prepared cake pans and place them in the preheated oven. Bake until the cakes are golden brown on top and set in the center, about 40 minutes.
- When the cakes are finished baking, remove them onto a cooling rack and allow them to sit in the tins to cool for about 15 minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, gently remove them from the pans and put them back on the rack to finish cooling.
- In the meantime, prepare your frosting. Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
- Place the butter in a large bowl or stand mixer and mix until the butter is soft and pliable.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the powdered sugar mix. Mix until the frosting is completely combined and light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl again and set the mixer to low while you add in the vanilla and milk. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time, testing in between to see if the frosting is as loose as you would like it to be. You may only need one tablespoon of milk — it’s up to you and how you like your frosting.
- Once everything is added to the bowl, scrape down the bowl and turn the mixer on one more time to give it one last good mix, for about 2-3 minutes.
- Once the cakes have completely cooled, you’re ready to frost your cake. Trim the domes on the tops of the layers, if that’s your style, and then place a little blob of the frosting in the center of your cake board to help keep the bottom layer in place while you frost.
- Place the first layer onto the cake board and add about a third of the frosting on top. Use a palette knife or spatula to smooth the frosting into an even layer, with a little bit of overlap at the edge of the cake to help frosting the sides go a little smoother.
- Place the second layer of cake on top of the first layer of frosting and plop another third of the frosting on top of that. Repeat the smoothing out of the frosting, again with some overhang. Give the top of the cake a swirl with your palette knife a this point if you want.
- Use a long spatula and the remaining frosting to cover the sides of the cake, adding a little at a time to cover any bare spots, making sure to frost all the way down to the cake board.
