citrus and chocolate birthday cake, a sugar overload

Three days into summer vacation, my university crowd reconvened to celebrate the birthing days of two of us, Boopsie the math major (we also have a Boopsie the computer science major) and BE. We hung out in a green, sunny park; made massage chains; walked to my lovely lovely local square of Asian grocery stores, Chinese bakeries, boba tea shops, and dim sum restaurants; walked back; swung on swings and climbed things; Boopsie-CS slayed invisble demons and sat on dinosaurs; we played frisbee-horseshoes, which is more (or as) difficult than it sounds; and ate this cake.

I used up an entire 2 lb. bag of sugar making this cake. Ok, I did have to scrap one batch of frosting, but still, if you are afraid of the sucrose monster, go no further. Beware. (The butter monster, too, is very much in evidence. Dieters, stay back).

The cake is a white cake recipe altered to my nefarious orange-flavored purposes. It is filled with a chocolate frosting, topped with melted chocolate, and then frosted with a rich orange buttercream. I messily scrawled on the top "HAPPY BDAY" with a mixture of powdered sugar, orange juice, and food dye. Not my prettiest cake, but tasty, and possible one of my most sugary. 

Citrus and Chocolate Birthday Cake

THE CAKE

1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C butter
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
3 C cake flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 C orange juice
optional: lemon or orange zest (I didn't, but it would taste good if you did)

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat sugar and butter together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour and baking powder. Mix in orange juice until just combined. Pour into two greased and floured 9 in. cake tins. Bake 30 minutes. Let cool.

The cake was one of my favorite parts of this adventure. I really liked the moist, orange-y crumb. Muffins, perhaps?

THE FILLING

2/3 C cocoa
6 Tb boiling water
1/2 C butter, softened
2 Tb chocolate chips, melted
3 C powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Stir cocoa and hot water together, then beat in the butter and chocolate. Beat in the sugar and vanilla on low (powdered sugar LOVES to fly around my kitchen and cover everything with white fairy dust if I mix it in too violently). Taste and adjust to your liking for taste and texture. Water will thin it; powdered sugar will stiffen it; butter and chocolate will make it richer.

THE TOPPING

Melt 3/4 C chocolate chips. Yes, that's it.

THE BUTTERCREAM

2 C butter (I know, I know. But it's a birthday, right? It only happens once a year)

3 C powdered sugar, approx.
3 Tb orange juice, approx.

Mix everything together. Taste. Adjust. This is a very very inexact recipe, because I played with this forever. However, this will get you to about the right volume you need to frost the cake. Flavor and texture you can do on your own.

THE DECORATING FROSTING

1 C powdered sugar
1 Tb orange juice
a few drops red and yellow food dye

Beat together. 

THE ASSEMBLY

Put one of the cooled caked on your serving tray. Using a large knife, carefully cut the top of the cake so it is even and flat. I didn't do this quite properly, so my cake had a tendency to fall over. Most of my cakes do.

Pile the chocolate filling on top. Spread out smooth. Place the second cake carefully on top of the filling, domed side up. 

Top the cake with the melted chocolate. Stash the cake in the fridge to let it set. (This is a good time to make the buttercream frosting). 

When the cake is cool, take it out of the fridge. Pile all the buttercream on top, and then smooth the pile carefully around the top of the cake and then off down the edges. Putting all the buttercream on the cake at once helps you keep from mixing crumbs into it. Just smooth out and down and hope you've made enough.

Decorate however you wish. Slice and devour.

Happy birthday Boopsie-M and BE!