Glazed Orange Cake

Hello, December.

Good-bye July, August, Septoctvember...

Uhh, what happened for six months ... ?!

Oh right, wild and adventurous chaos consumed my life.

!!!

No really. Chaos. I'm still wigging out.

I traded my mountain view for a windy lakefront. A five-bedroom ranch-style house with dos fireplaces and a screened-in porch for a one-bedroom apartment that costs me twice as much. My office job for an apron and artisan breads. A personal vehicle for a CTA pass. And most significantly and troublesome of all, mild, mild winters for intolerable arctic temperatures.

Not arctic. But close enough.

Chicago. I moved there. Here. I live in Chicago.

I have a library card to prove it.

My iPhone saw all this.

But today, the first of December AND more importantly, my first Saturday off since I snagged a job in the Windy City, I decided to introduce Virginia to my new life-partner, Chitown.

My thoughtful friend Ana sent me off to the Midwest with a bit of Southern charm in tow: the Virginia Hospitality Cookbook.

A conglomeration of the commonwealth's heritage and culinary tradition.

So, in consummating the marriage between VA and Chicago, I chose a wintery cake recipe from the historic Kenmore Plantation to commemorate my new location on Kenmore.

Glazed Orange Cake

Food creds: Virginia Hospitality

Ingredients:

         Cake:

            1 cup butter, softened

            2 cups sugar

            1/2 tsp vanilla

            2 T orange zest

            5 eggs
            3 cups cake flour
            1 T baking powder
            3/4 cup milk

         Glaze:

            1/4 cup butter

            1/3 cup orange juice

            2/3 cup sugar

          

Directions:

         1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

         2. Add vanilla and orange rind. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

         3. Combine and sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt twice. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture gradually, alternating with the milk and ending with the flour, beating well after each addition.

         4. Spoon batter into buttered and floured tube pan and bake 1 hour or until cake springs back when touched. 

         5. Cool 15 minutes.

         1. Heat ingredients in saucepan until sugar is dissolved.

         2. Pour evenly over cake in pan while cake is still warm. 

         3. Allow cake to cool thoroughly in the pan before removing.



Thank you, Virginia, for your hospitality and sweet Southern edibles.

With love, from one Kenmore to another.

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Pumpkin Spice Cake

Sometimes I just want simple. I love making things from scratch, but I can't always handle scratch. You know what I mean? You've got things to do; of course you know what I mean!

This spice cake is probably not new to most of you. In fact, I saw it posted on Pinterest just the other day. But this is a classic. The way Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz are classics: not new but always loved, always familiar.

Spice cake, for me, is nostalgic. Every time I smell it baking, I'm reminded of Nana in the kitchen with pans and Crisco and toothpicks and these old old hot pads that are about as faded as Betsy Ross's American flag. That kitchen smelled like autumn. Like fallen leaves and wool sweaters.

Nope. There's not a thing wrong with simple.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Ingredients:

             1 box Spice Cake

             1 can pure pumpkin

             1 can frosting (cream cheese or buttercream or vanilla)

Directions:

             1. Preheat oven according to box directions. Grease selected pan

                 and set aside. (I use a 9" springform pan).

             2. Combine cake mix and pumpkin in a bowl until thoroughly

                 incorporated. The batter will seem a bit too dry at first,

                 but stay faithful to mixing and you'll see it will all blend together.

             3. Pour batter into pan and bake according to box directions.

             3. Let the cake cool completely. Heat icing (uncovered) in microwave

                 for about 10-15 seconds and pour on top of the cake allowing the
                 icing to drip off the sides.

Plate it up.

Add a dash of powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice, and you are in for a fall treat.

Simple.

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