EASTER ORANGE-CHIFFON CAKE
You can serve this cake simply frosted or you can make my flight-of-fancy
Easter basket, you won't be a basket case making our basket cake.
CAKE
1 cup egg whites (from 7 large eggs), at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange peel
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Yolks from 4 large eggs
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising) or 2 cups all-purpose
flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
FROSTING
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine (not spread),
at room temperature
1/4 cup water
3/4 teaspoon orange extract
4 drops yellow food coloring
2 drops red food coloring
EASTER BASKET
1 Easter Orange-Chiffon Cake, frosted just before decorating
24 anisette sponge cookies (not anisette toast)
18 red licorice (strawberry) twists (each at least 5 inches long)
Wire clothing hanger, straightened and cut to 25 inches long
One 32-inch length and two 15-inch lengths of ribbon about 3/4-inch wide
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 drop green food coloring
Pastel-colored jelly beans
1 sugar-coated chocolate egg
Easter Basket
1. Heat oven to 325 F. Have a 9- to 10-inch tube pan ready. If pan has a
removable bottom, do nothing to it. If not, lightly grease and line bottom with
waxed paper. Lightly grease paper (don't grease pan sides).
2. Cake: Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed
until frothy. Increase mixer speed to high, gradually adding the 2 tablespoons
sugar. Beat until whites greatly increase in volume, are thick and glossy, and
stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted.
3. In another large bowl, with electric mixer on medium (no need to wash
beaters), beat remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar, the orange peel and juice, oil, egg
yolks and orange extract until well blended. With mixer on low, gradually beat
in flour, then baking powder and salt until batter is smooth.
4. Stir about 1/3 the whites into batter. Pour batter over remaining whites and
gently stir (fold) with a rubber spatula until no white streaks remain.
5. Scrape into tube pan and smooth top. Bake 1 hour or until a pick inserted
near center of cake comes out clean. Invert tube pan on a wire rack or hang on
the neck of a glass bottle. Let cool completely.
6. Run a knife around edges and tube and remove pan. Loosen and remove bottom,
or peel off paper. (Cake can be covered and refrigerated up to 3 days or
wrapped airtight and frozen up to 1 month.) Place cake right-side up on serving
plate.
7. Frosting: Beat confectioners' sugar, butter, water and extract in a
medium-size bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 1 minute until fluffy.
Beat in food color, 1 drop at a time. Spread evenly over cake including inside
of tube hole.
NOTE To save time, you can use 2 cans (16 ounces each) ready-to-spread vanilla
frosting. Scrape frosting into a medium-size bowl. Stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons
orange extract and food coloring until smooth and evenly tinted a pale orange.
Proceed as directed.
EASTER BASKET
1. Cut flat bottom off each sponge cookie (see Cooking Lesson, below). Turn
cut-side down, rounded side up and cut in half from top to bottom. Trim each
half, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick curved crust. Cut 1/2 inch from both ends
(you'll have 48 two 3-inch-wide arches, a few more than needed).
2. Trim 15 licorice twists until 1/2 inch higher than cake. To make basket,
press 1 licorice twist (post) against frosting. Starting at base of cake, place
3 sponge-cookie-arches evenly spaced over the post, gently pressing ends of
cookies into frosting. Add second post as shown. Repeat with 2 cookie-arches
creating a woven effect. Repeat around cake, trimming last cookie-arches if
necessary to fit.
3. To make handle, bend wire hanger in a curve until ends are 8 inches apart.
Cut both ends off remaining 3 licorice twists. Thread twists onto hanger
leaving 3 1/2-inches hanger exposed on both ends. Stick ends into cake.
4. Weave the long ribbon through tops of licorice posts. Tie shorter pieces in
bows around ends of handle.
5. Put coconut into a plastic food bag. Add green food coloring and shake until
coconut is evenly tinted. Sprinkle a border around top of cake. Fill center
hole of cake and coconut border with jelly beans. Set sugar-coated egg in
middle.
Basket Weave with Cookies
1. Cut each sponge cookie lengthwise in half. Cut the curved crust from each
slice, making crust about 3/8 inch thick. You will use the curved crust for the
basketwork.
Trim 1/2 inch from each end of curve (you'll have 48 curves).
2. To make basket weave, press 1 licorice twist (post) against frosting.
Starting at base of cake, place 3 curved crusts evenly spaced over the post,
gently pressing ends of crusts into frosting. Add second post. Repeat with 2
more pieces of curved crusts, creating a woven effect. Repeat around cake,
trimming last pieces to fit.
GOD Bless, Marla
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAKE-RECIPE/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAKE-RECIPE/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
