CHOCOLATY ORANGE CAKE

Surprise! Surprise! My cookie jar is empty again, but I decided to make a cake for us instead of more cookies. When I initially saw the recipe for this Chocolaty Orange Cake in Favorite Recipes Duncan Hines BAKE Your Best cookbook, I thought I would make it to share with the volunteers at Hillcrest Thrift. At the time, the only chocolate cake mix I had was a sugar-free one and I wanted to save it for us. Even though I had a regular chocolate cake mix, I decided to make it for us and use the sugar-free Devil's Food cake mix I had.

The cake is really delicious but I expected it to have more of the orange flavor to it. (It is called Chocolaty Orange Cake.) It tastes too good to give up on it though. I would just recommend that you make more of the glaze and that would help give it more orange flavor. I might also increase the grated orange peel to 1 tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon.  

I am really looking forward to having something besides cookies in the house to eat. Since I used the sugar-free cake mix and natural orange juice, I don't feel like we are getting too much sugar.

As always when I use sugar-free products, you can use the regular sugar products, if you aren't watching your sugar intake.

CHOCOLATY ORANGE CAKE

Cake:
1         package Devil's Food Cake mix (I used a sugar-free Devil's Food Cake mix.)
3         eggs or egg substitute product that equals 3 eggs
1-1/3   cups orange juice
1/2      cup oil
1         teaspoon grated orange peel (Use more up to 1 tablespoon for a stronger orange flavor)

Glaze:
1         cup sifted confectioners sugar (For more, use 2 cups)
2         teaspoons margarine, softened (For more, use 4 teaspoons)
1         teaspoon grated orange peel (For more, use 2 teaspoons)
2 - 3    tablespoons orange juice (I used only 2 tablespoons because I wanted a thicker glaze) (Use however much you need to make it the consistency you wish.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 - inch Bundt pan. (See note at the bottom.)

For the cake, combine all ingredients for the cake in a large mixing bowl.

Beat on low til ingredients are wet.

Scrape the sides of the bowl.

Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl again to make sure ingredients are well blended.

Pour batter in pan and

bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (45 minutes were enough for mine)

Cool in pan for 25 minutes on wire rack.

Invert cake on serving plate.

Finish cooling on wire rack.

To make the glaze, sift the powdered sugar before measuring it. Combine the sugar, margarine, and orange peel in a small mixing bowl.

Add orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time until

glaze is spreading consistency. 

Spoon over cake.








Personal Note:

Even though I thought I was covering the inside of the pan well with shortening, I had some bare spots. I realized it when I floured it, but ignored it.

When I removed the cake from the pan, the "crust" on the outside of the cake stuck to those bare spots.

It wasn't major and was just the outer edge of the cake. I hated it but not as much as if I had been taking it somewhere to share. I decided to make the glaze thicker rather than thinner and

was able to cover those places on the cake. I didn't need any extra "glaze", but as I said earlier in the post, next time I would make more just to give the cake a heavier covering to give the cake a more orange flavor.