Orange Sun Cake
Plan
View the plan details on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INVHQ0aRavA
1. Two cakes are made. One rectangle shaped and the other one round shaped.
2. The rectangle cake is cut in half and filled with orange filling and then iced.
3. Do not cut the round cake in half horizontally and fill it with orange filling as was done with the rectangle cake, because it is needed for full support and made to stand erect like the rising sun
4. The round cake is shortened vertically midway and made to stand on the bottom cake with the help of wooden rods or dowels and/or plastic drinking straws pierced all the way through both the cakes at various positions.
5. The remaining cake pieces can be put behind the half round cake for additional support if needed.
6. Ice the cakes and decorate with sunflowers and sunrays.
7. The cake was first iced with green colored cream cheese icing and then decorated with grass effect buttercream icing.
The Cake
Ingredients
• 3 Cups Self raising flour (375 gms)
• 1 ½ cup sugar (300gms)
• ½ cup oil (109 gms)
• 1 cup orange soda
• ½ cup orange juice made from fresh oranges
• Orange rind from 1 whole orange, approx 1tbsp rind
• ½ tsp baking soda (2.3gms)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 ¼ tbsp yogurt
• A pinch of orange red color
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Line 13x9x2 inch rectangle baking tray or 10 inch round baking pan with parchment paper/wax paper and non stick baking spray. Or grease well with butter and dust with self rising flour. (You can use any shape baking pan too). The pan should be ¾ full with batter.
3. In a bowl sieve the flour. Add soda and salt.
4. In a separate bowl sieve the sugar. Add oil and mix well with an electric blender. Add orange soda, orange juice, orange rind, yogurt and color and blend well for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the liquid gradually to the flour and blend well till it is smooth. The batter will be watery.
6. Pour the batter in the pan from inside to outside.
7. Tap the pans gently for an even layout.
8. Bake in the center of the oven at 350F for 30 minutes or till the inserted toothpick comes out dry.
9. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan. Then invert it and let cool for an hour before icing the cake.
10. Divide the cake in two halves and slightly moisten the cake with 3-4tbsp of orange soda or orange juice
Orange filling
• 2 oranges finely chopped
• 1 cup buttercream icing
• Mix the above two and fill it between the 2 layers of the cake
Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Green color
Preparation
1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and little green color
Grass effect on the cake
1. Green colored butter cream icing.
2. Fit the icing cone bag with Multi-Opening Decorating Tip 233 and fill 1/2 full with medium consistency green colored buttercream icing. Hold the decorating bag 90° straight up; the tip should be 1/8 in. above surface.
3. Squeeze bag to form grass. Pull up and away when icing strand is long enough (about 1/2 inch) stop pressure and pull tip away. Grass will be neatly formed only if you stop squeezing before you pull tip away.
Sunflowers
Butter Cream Icing
Ingredients
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• ½ cup / 1 stick softened butter
• 1 tsp clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups /1 pound sifted confectioners sugar
• 4-5 tbsp luke warm orange juice.
• Yellow color
• Carrob powder-4tbsp
• flower nail number 7
• Waxing paper cut in small squares
• Icing tips 12, 16,352
Preparation
1. Beat the vegetable shortening till light and fluffy.
2. Mix in butter and beat well.
3. Add vanilla extract, water and sugar in batches and beat well till the icing is soft and creamy.
4. Divide icing into 3/4th and 1/4th parts.
5. To the 3/4th part add Yellow color as needed
6. To the 1/4th part add Carrob powder / Cocoa powder, and 1/4tsp water approx and mix well to a soft consistency.
7. In one icing cone put the brown icing and attach tip 12(later on tip 16 will be used with brown icing) for the center of the sunflower and in the other icing cone put the yellow icing and tip 352 for the sunflower petals
8. Attach waxed paper square to flower nail number 7. Hold bag fitted with tip 12 at 90° angle and pipe a 3/4 in. diameter brown mound.
9. Hold bag fitted with tip 352 at a 45° angle to pipe two rows of pull-out yellow leaves. For a more natural look sometimes pull tip slightly to the right or left, instead of straight up.
10. Hold bag fitted with tip 16 at a 90° angle to pipe brown stars on center of the mound. Let dry on flower formers or on a tray.
11. Attach the sunflowers on the cake with buttercream icing.
The Sun Rays
Ingredients
• Fondant, Gumpaste, yellow and orange red color, vegetable shortening, 10x confectioners sugar, water
Preparation
1. Take fondant the size of approx ¼ a medium apple and gum paste should be half of the fondant. Make it little soft with the help of ¼ tsp or less of vegetable shortening if needed and add a touch of orange red color and yellow color with a toothpick to get your desired color. Mix well. The dough has to be firm. Do not soften it or else it wont harden well enough later on.
2. Roll it flat very thinly and cut in various shapes of the sun rays. Best and quickest way is to use your right hand index finger and thumb and make a mark on the fondant in the shape of a ray, going broad on the base and tapering in a zig zag way to the top. Cut it with a designed rolling cutter /pizza cutter or a knife.
3. Keep the rays on a tray and let dry in the fridge or in a cool place for a day or two.
4. Make a paste of Confectioners sugar and water.
5. Attach thin plastic straws at the back of the dried hardened rays with the help of this sugar and water paste. Keep 1-2 inches of the straw jutting outside the rays.
6. Once dry, the rays can be pushed into the cake with the help of the straws.
By Meena Samtani/Madhulila Dasi
