A beautiful duo: Champagne & Orange juice.
A soft cake crumb, infused with champagne syrup and decorated with citrus curd and cream cheese icing. A mouthful, yet so simple!
INGREDIENTS
CAKE
1 ¼ cup castor sugar
1 orange, zest (± 1 tbsp)
4 eggs, separated
½ cup oil
¾ cup orange juice (± 2 oranges)
1 tbsp vanilla essence
2 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
CHAMPANGE SYRUP
½ cup water
½ cup castor sugar
½ cup champagne
LEMON CURD (Tip 1)
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup castor sugar
½ tsp maizena (corn flour)
¼ cup lemon juice (± 1 lemon)
2 tbsp butter (30g)
CREAM CHEESE ICING
125g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
1 tub (230g) cream cheese
METHOD
CAKE
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and place the oven rack in the middle.
2. Prepare a bunt cake tin or 2 small cake tins (18-20 cm) with enough non-stick spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and orange zest. Mix with a mixer to “infuse” the sugar.
4. Separate the eggs and set the egg whites aside.
5. Add the egg yolks, one by one, to the sugar and whisk well after each addition.
6. Add the oil to the sugar and egg mixture. Whisk until light and fluffy.
7. Add the orange juice and vanilla to your mixture and whisk until well combined.
8. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt over the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
9. In a separate glass bowl, with a clean mixer, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the cake mix until well combined.
10. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin/s and bake for 25-30 minutes (Tip 2).
11. Allow the cake to rest for 10 minutes before demoulding onto a cooling rack.
CHAMPANGE SYRUP
1. In a small saucepan, mix all the ingredients.
2. Over medium heat, stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Once the mixture starts to boil, stop stirring and allow the syrup to boil for 5-10 minutes until half of the liquid has dissolved.
4. Remove the saucepan from the stovetop and allow the syrup to cool down.
5. Evenly pour the syrup over the cooled cakes.
LEMON CURD
1. Add the egg yolks to a small saucepan and whisk with a hand whisk.
2. Add the castor sugar and maizena to the egg yolks and whisk until a smooth paste forms.
3. Slowly add the lemon juice and whisk until well combined.
4. Place the saucepan over your stovetop and cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture thickens (8-10 minutes).
5. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter. Mix until smooth and glossy.
6. Pour the curd into a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap, directly onto the lemon curd (Tip 3).
7. Allow the curd to cool down. Once the cake is cooled down and iced, pour spoonsful drops over the icing and decorate as desired. This curd adds so much texture and flavour to the cake.
CREAM CHEESE ICING
1. In a medium bowl, whisk the butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add the icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until well combined.
3. Add the vanilla, salt and cream cheese and mix until smooth.
4. Decorate the cooled cake with your icing and top with lemon curd.
TIPS
1. You are more than welcome to use store bought lemon curd. However, this recipe is so easy and you can really taste the difference!
2. The cake tester should have some moist crumbs on when testing the cake. When the cake tester comes out clean, the cake is most probably over baked.
3. The plastic wrap should touch the lemon curd; this prevents a dry layer to form on top. The same trick works with any custard. The mixture will thicken more as it cools down.