Norwegian Orange Cake
3/4 cup
(1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
Grated
zest of one orange
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons orange juice,
divided
1 1/3 cups four
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3
ounces dark chocolate (preferable 70%), finely chopped
3/4
cup powdered sugar
candied orange peel for garnish
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees.
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer using
the beater attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat
the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the
eggs, one at a time, beating until thoroughly incorporated. Beat in
the orange zest and the one-third cup orange juice.
2. In a
medium bowl sift together the flour and baking powder. With the mixer
running, slowly add the flour mixture until combined to form the cake
batter. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
3. Place the batter into a
greased and floured 9 inch bundt pan, smoothing the top of the
batter. (The batter will come slightly less than halfway up the sides
of the pan.)
4. Bake the cake until puffed and lightly browned on
top and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out
clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in pan on a
cooling rack, then remove from mold. The finished cake will be about
3 inches tall in the center. (Sandy's note: Ours was closer to 2
inches tall. Our pan may be a trifle to big for this recipe)
5.
While the cake is cooling, making the icing. In a medium bowl sift
the powdered sugar. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons orange juice and
whisk to form the icing.
6. Drizzle the icing over the cooled
cake, then garnish with the candied orange peel.
Notes: We
couldn't find candied orange peel. It is a seasonal item and this
isn't the season - that's in November and December. So we didn't
garnish. We also didn't ice the cake, as the combination of orange
juice and powdered sugar wasn't very tasty. I will make a thin butter
cream frosting flavored with orange extract, next time.
This
makes a light, fluffy textured cake that is very lightly flavored
orange. It is delightful. (I may add orange extract next time to
enhance the orange flavoring.)
Oh, and we opted to leave out
the dark chocolate as at least half of us don't care for dark
chocolate.