Feed Me Friday - Dangerous Poetry and Orange Crunch Cake!

First, a selection from our book, The Dangerous Book of Poetry, Anonymous Poems from Real Women on the Street  

Available through our website
www.streetchicks.net
Just click the link to the right!

Trust

Yesterday the sky was sad.

It cried a river.

Overflowing the streets and gutters

With its tears.

At last exhausted, it fell asleep

Covered with the night.

Today, the sky is sullen,

Teardrop puddles,

Filled with broken dreams,

Reflect no light.

A hint of peace begins to form;

Sitting sun appears in the west!

Tomorrow, the sky will smile.

Cotton clouds will play peek-a-boo

With Mr. Sun, whose, golden

Rays will dry the 'teardrop puddles'.

Tomorrow all belongs to Thee.

This is my trust.

If this doesn't make you, and everyone around you smile, there's something seriously wrong - see a doctor immediately!

A friend of mine recently celebrated Cinco de Mayo by running off to the courthouse and getting MARRIED! We had been discussing how awesome the Orange Crunch Cake at the Bubble Room is, so I decided to make her one for a wedding gift. It was not as tall as the Bubble Room's, but was just as delicious!  Here's how I did it. Recipe courtesy of the Cake Duchess.  

crunch layer
1 cup graham crackers (7 sheets)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

I put the graham crackers in a zip lock bag and crushed them with a rolling pin. Get all of the air out of the bag first, or it may explode on you. I put the almonds in the blender to pulverize. Then I just added them, the brown sugar and butter to the bag and used my hands to mix it up. It should look like rough sand.

cake 

2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk (or whatever milk you prefer)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp orange zest
3 large eggs

Your orange should look like this after being zested. You want to make sure you do not zest the white part of the rind, since that is bitter. A whole orange yielded 2 Tbsp of zest, which was just right for this part, but did not leave me any for the frosting. I left it out of the frosting seeing that I did not want to make a trip to the store, and it turned out just fine. If you want zest in your frosting, buy 2 oranges!

frosting
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp orange juice
2 tsp orange zest

Directions:
crunch layer: in drum of food processor, pulse graham crackers and almonds until coarsely ground.  Add brown sugar and butter; pulse to combine. Remember, I did this in a baggie.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Spray  2 9-inch cake pan with baking spray. Divide and spread crunch mixture evenly on the bottom of the pans. Press down gently with fingers to cover the bottom of pan evenly and set aside.

cake batter:

In medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  In a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, beat together sugar, buttermilk, orange juice, oil, vanilla, and zest.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix to combine.  Add in the dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until almost combined.  Stop mixer to scrape the sides of pan with a spatula and fully combine the ingredients.

Divide the batter evenly among the two prepared pans.  Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in middle of cake comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Run a knife along the sides of the first pan to help loosen the cake before inverting it onto invert that cakes onto a cooking rack.  Completely cool cakes (I resisted just 30 minutes). I actually put them in the fridge for a bit because I was in a time crunch.

while cake cools, make frosting:  With your electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.  Add the orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract.  On low speed, add powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time) and beat until you have a nice and smooth frosting. This frosting is very soft - meaning it does not get as stiff as most - I ended up adding the whole bag of powdered sugar to try and make it more spreadable. The weather here in SW Florida (hot and humid) has a lot to do with the consistency, even with the AC on. Don't over do it on the sugar though, it will make the frosting overly sweet.

make your cake: With a spoon, drop half the frosting onto the cake on the serving plate (you should be doing this on the crunch side of the cake).  I put a spoonful of frosting on the serving plate before you put the first layer on the plate. That helps hold the cake to the plate. Especially if you are going to be transporting it! IMPORTANT - the first layer goes on the plate crunch side UP.

With a spatula, spread this thick layer of frosting.   Place the second cooled cake crunch side down on top of frosting.  Spread the remaining frosting on the top of the cake.  Since the frosting was real loose/soft, I put about half between the layers, then spread some on the top only! I didn't think it would 'stick' to the sides. I like the fact that you could see the crunch layer when complete! I also ended up putting 3 toothpicks down in the cake from the top to keep the top layer from sliding off in my car. (I delivered it to my friend) To transport, simply place the cake (plate) on a towel (I put both the towel and cake in a box but not necessary) and put on the floor board of your car, or in the back of your SUV and drive carefully - especially around corners!  I also placed the whole cake in the fridge before moving it and that firmed up the whole thing just right!

I barely made it to my destination without eating this! It SMELLED divine in my car. Luckily, my friend offered me a piece, and I was smart enough to take her up on it! It was YUMMY!! I highly recommend when making a gift of food for a friend, make two so you can have some as well!

The Bubble Room cakes are very tall! My guess is that they make this recipe twice and make 4 layers. In that case, I would put all layers crunch side up and just be careful frosting the top so as to not get crumbs in it. Just a warning though - that would be a LOT of cake, so make sure you have a crowd to enjoy it!

I'm always looking for great inspiration and recipes! If you have either, please email me through the 'Contact Street Chicks' box on the right, or just leave a comment below.