Pink Birthday Cake

My niece Gracie turned three years old last month.  I made her a special pink cake because she is such a girly girl.  

Orange Spongecake

• ⅔ cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• zest on one orange
• ⅓ cup orange juice
• 1 tsp orange extract
• ¾ cup cake flour
• 4 egg whites
• pink of salt
• Beat together egg yolks and sugar.  Add orange zest, orange extract, and orange juice. Mix that all together then add flour.  In a separate bowl whip egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Beat in 1/4 of the egg whites and fold in the rest.  We want the batter fluffy. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 min.  Makes enough batter for one 9” cake round.

Egg yolks and orange.  I guess I really didn't need the orange extract as well as orange zest and orange juice.

Whip together egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.  You know you have stiff peaks when you can turn the bowl upside down and they do not fall out.  (Note:  Do not try this at home on the off chance that they do fall out of the bowl.  On the carpet.  And nothing you try will get egg white stain out.  And you have to start over with more egg whites for the recipe.)

Beat one fourth the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and gently fold in the rest.  Nice and fluffy.

I made two 6" cake rounds and a few heart shaped cupcakes.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese (1 package), softened at room temperature
• 4 Tbs butter (1/2 a stick), softened at room temperature
• 6 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tsp orange extract
• Zest of one orange
• Heavy Whipping Cream
• Beat together butter and cream cheese. Add orange zest and orange extract, beat that in. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time beating it in. Add heavy cream as desired to get the right consistency.

I baked them all at the same time.  350 degrees for 15 minutes.  My oven runs hot.

Orange extract is not orangey enough so the frosting needed the zest of one orange.  Zest is fun to say.  Zest, zest, zest.

Letting the cake and cupcakes cool before frosting so the frosting does not melt.

Frosting time.

I needed a pink cake.

To get the frosting lines evenly spaced I use toothpicks to mark how far apart I want them to be.

Cover the toothpicks holes with more frosting swirls and add pink bows.

No, the bows are not edible.  Just regular pink ribbon.

Added some frosting to decorate the cupcakes hearts.

As soon as I walked through the door I said, "Gracie, I have a birthday cake for you."

Her response, without looking up for the tablet game she was playing, "Is it pink?"

"Yes, Gracie, it's pink."

Well then, now she can inspect her cake.  Just had to make sure it was pink or she wasn't interested.

Such a girly girl.

Happy Birthday Gracie!  Blow out your three candles.

Lets eat the cake.

 Remember, do not eat the ribbons.

Enjoy.