Fresh Orange Birthday Cake from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!

I’m a long-time fan of The Cake Mix Doctor–it was with Anne Byrn’s recipes that I first experimented with making icing from scratch (believe me, once you try it, you will never buy canned icing again). As soon as The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! landed on my desk, I was already picking out which cake I was going to make first.

I went with the Fresh Orange Birthday Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. The freshly squeezed orange in the cake and zest in the icing had my kitchen smelling incredible before I even got the pans in the oven. The result was a decadent icing paired with a light and refreshing cake so good that we ended up eating a generous slice for Sunday brunch! One of my favorite things about the Cake Mix Doctor books is how easy it is to mix and match the cakes with different icings, and I’d love to try this one with a chocolate frosting or glaze with some orange zest sprinkled in, but I’ve got 159 cakes to get through before trying repeats!

Fresh Orange Birthday Cake

Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
Flour, for dusting the pans
1 large orange
About 1 cup orange juice from a carton
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
12 to 15 fresh orange slices, or candy gum drop
orange slices, for garnish

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly mist three 9-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray, then dust them with flour. Shake out the excess flour and set the pans aside.
2. Rinse the orange and pat it dry with paper towels. Grate enough zest to measure 2 to 3 teaspoons. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into a small bowl; you will have about ½ cup of juice. Add enough orange juice from a carton to the fresh
orange juice to measure 1¹⁄³ cups.
3. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, oil, vanilla, eggs, and orange juice and orange zest in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are moistened, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the batter until well combined and smooth, about 1½ minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl again if needed. Divide the cake batter evenly among the 3 prepared cake pans, about 1¾ cups of batter per pan, smoothing the tops with the rubber spatula. Place the cake pans in the oven. If your oven is not large enough to hold 3
pans on one rack, place 2 pans on that rack and one in the center of the rack above.
4. Bake the cake layers until the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 18 to 20 minutes. The cake layer on the higher rack may bake faster so test it for doneness first. Transfer the cake pans to wire racks and let the cake layers cool for 5 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of each cake layer and give the pans a good shake to loosen the cakes. Invert each layer onto a wire rack, then invert it again onto another wire rack so that the cakes are right side up. Let the layers cool to room temperature, 15 minutes longer.

5. Make the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting.

6. To assemble the cake, transfer one layer, right side up, to a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer of cake, right side up, on top of the first and frost the top. Repeat this process with the third layer. Use the remaining frosting
to frost the side of the cake, working with smooth, clean strokes. Arrange the fresh orange slices around the base of the cake, or place candy gum drop orange slices on top of the cake. To make slicing easier, place the uncovered cake in the refrigerator
until the frosting sets, 20 minutes.

Just Want a Two-Layer Cake? That’s easy. Pour the Fresh Orange Birthday Cake batter into two 9-inch round cake pans that have been misted and floured. You’ll need to fill them a little fuller than for a three-layer cake and they’ll take a little longer to be done; bake the layers until they are golden brown and spring back in the center when lightly pressed with a finger, 25 to 30 minutes. When you assemble the cake, spread the frosting between the two layers more thickly than for a three-layer cake.

Keep It Fresh! Store this cake, in a cake saver or loosely covered with waxed paper, in the refrigerator for up to one week. Freeze the cake, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to six months. Let the cake thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (see Note)
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh orange juice
3¾ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Place the butter and cream cheese in a medium-size bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the orange zest, 2 teaspoons of the orange juice, and the confectioners’ sugar, a bit at a time, beating with the mixer on low speed until the confectioners’ sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the frosting until fluffy, 1 minute longer. Add up to 1 teaspoon more orange juice if the frosting seems too stiff. Use the frosting at once.
Note: A small orange will yield a little more than 1 teaspoon of zest. And it will give you a tablespoon or two of juice, more than you need for this recipe.