Sunday, June 19, 2011

Ode to a cake and some really awesome icecream

When there was a special family occasion - such as the big family birthday party for the five family members who were special enough to be born in June- my mom made Orange Celebration Cake and Orange Ice cream.
This is the cake and ice cream dreams are made of.
There were layers of velvety yellow cake with creamy orange custard in between. Mom put chocolate icing all around the outside and then to top it all off -a glistening pool of yummy orange custard on top. And if that wasn't enough orange for you, she made orange ice cream. Not just ice cream, but homemade orange custard ice cream with a heavy emphasis on the cream. The cream she used was sweet and thick and came from Bossie, our family cow. It was the creamiest most orangey ice cream imaginable. The recipe called for orange juice but Mom used orange juice concentrate so it was extra orangey.

Making the ice cream was a family effort. We used a hand cranked ice cream maker. We kids would take turns cranking until we either ran out of steam or drifted off to do something else more interesting like play tag or kick ball in the yard. As I remember my dad and grandpa got stuck with most of the cranking. When it was ready, we kids argued over who got the sweet, drippy, paddle. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

I will admit I'm not much of a chocolate eater, so I picked off the icing and gave it to one of my chocoholic siblings. Which may be why I never wrote down mom's chocolate icing recipe. I was all about the orange custard and cake with a pile of orange ice cream. Mmmmmmm! I've never found cake and ice cream that could rival it. ... and believe me I've tried.

For quite a few years we all thought Mom had lost the recipe for the Orange Celebration cake and the orange ice cream. I found them again recently written out longhand in the do-it-yourself cookbook that I've had since Junior High.  Here they are:
Cook, Eat, Celebrate, Love and Be Happy!

Orange Celebration Cake
1/3c butter
1/3 c shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel
3 eggs
2 1/2 c sifted flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp orange juice concentrate
Cream butter, shortening, sugar, orange peel until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beat well after each one. Add sifted dry ingredients altenating with orange jice. Turn batter into 2 greased and paper lined 9 inch layer pans. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Orange filling:
Combine 2/3 c sugar and 3 Tbspn flour in sauce pan. Add 1 cup orang juice made from 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate and 1/2 water. Add 2 egg yolks. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Cook one minute. Stir in 2 Tbspns butter. Cool.



Orange Custard Ice cream

2 c sugar
1 c water
Boil together for 5 minutes.
Add 2 cups orange juice (As I remember mom used extra strong orange juice made from concentrate: 2 part concentrate to 1 part water)
Scald 1/2 pint raw thin cream
Add 2 egg yolks
Cook and stir over hot water or very low heat until thick. Cool. Add the first mixture.
Fold in:
1/2 pint heavy cream beaten stiff
Put it in the icecreem freezer and crank crank crank!

Makes about 2 quarts.