Sunday, October 19, 2014

Citrus Sunbeam Layer Cake for Chi


A colleague, Chi, had his last day with us last week.  I found out when his last day was, and decided to make him a cake to ensure that he was seen off in the right fashion.

I had not the faintest idea what kind of cake Chi liked best, so I randomly decided I would make some kind of orange cake based on the number of oranges I had in the fridge.  A lot of recipes that I came across were of the boiled orange/flourless variety.  Not having a couple of hours to boil oranges, I was very excited when I landed on the recipe for Citrus Sunbeam Layer Cake from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook.

 
You can also find the recipe for this cake online here.  I chose to make only a half recipe, and made two orange layers and one lemon layer, as I wanted my cake to focus on the orange.  I also substituted Cointreau for the limoncello to bring out the orange flavour.  I left the alcohol out of the icing completely - mainly because I forgot to add it.


To decorate the cake, I used black writing icing (a winner) and popping candy (not a good idea - it all popped as soon as I put it on the cake and went quite sticky looking).

Despite my off-centre writing and sticky popping candy decoration, Chi was very pleased with his cake, and a number of people told me they enjoyed it.  I'll count that as a keeper in my books.

8 comments:

Andrea_TheKitchenLioness said...

Gaye, what a nice thought - love that you made that wonderful cake for one of your colleagues!
Have a wonderful Sunday! (fun fact about those popping candies...made me smile on this very early Sunday morning)
Andrea

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Oh that is a half cake? That looks like a good size! And yes I have done that with popping candy too and it popped too quickly.

Kari said...

I like the idea of orange and lemon layers - I've made a few orange cakes and like you say, so many are the standard flourless and boiled orange variety. This looks like a nice change.

Cheri Savory Spoon said...

How thoughtful of you to bake a cake for your colleague. Never heard of popping candies before, will have to check that out. Love the black lettering!

The Caked Crusader said...

Love your decoration - it's so cheerful!

Johanna GGG said...

And so I think Chi should be pleased with your beautiful cake - wish I worked with such thoughtful colleagues as you!

BTW if you even need 'boiled' oranges quickly they don't take long in the microwave if you have one. But I quite like the sound of this cake and the layers

Choc Chip Uru @ Go Bake Yourself said...

All the layers offer something unique and delicious :D
Love the colour!

Cheers
Choc Chip Uru

Kayte said...

I would count that as a keeper as well, it looks beautiful, the inside is just so appealing. Citrus...one can't go wrong with citrus ever!! Nice way to send Chi off to his new life.