Soliel - the Perfect Orange Cake

Today is a great morning because I got to bring this cake to work that I've been research, buying things for and making for the past 4 days.  Paul says it has consumed me.  This may be slightly true.  But enough about that...on to THE CAKE! (I feel that it needs a name...not a name like Jen's Perfect Masterpiece but something more like Soliel (a French name for "sun" - fitting as most of the recipes are from Julia Child!). But I'm not that obsessed, so we'll skip the name and stick with "the cake.")

The cake has two layers of orange sponge cake, one layer of yellow butter cake, two layers of orange curd filling, and Cointreau butter cream frosting - garnished with fresh orange slices (and curled orange rind).  So you see - "the cake" is just not a sufficient name.  And since you can't see it in person or taste it, I'll tell you all about it.  After all, I have to record my 4 days of research/planning/baking somewhere!

Like I said, the cake has three layers, two are orange sponge cake which i think is fabulous because it is light (in weight, in flavor, in consistency) and delicious!  The orange kind of makes it taste healthy and the cake part makes it like a sweet indulgence!  It is more substantial than angel-food cake, but much lighter than and fluffier than normal cake. (The technical explanation is that I beat and whisked lots of air into the batter and then delicately folded it all together and quickly popped it in the oven.)

The third layer is a yellow butter cake - it is only there because I wanted to try the recipe.  I watched the Cake Love video on making that cake like 3 times. Before you think eh, butter cake? let me tell you that it only has that name because of its appearance (not its ingredients) and it is only yellow because of the egg yolks.  It tastes good but it is much heavier (weight and density, slightly like a pound cake.) and it has a shiny buttery look.  (But it doesn't taste like butter...it has a hint of vanilla and the bourbon I put in it! Haha).

The filling between the three layers of cake is an orange curd. (You are so from Wisconsin, putting curds in your cake!) This sounds gross, but it is a lot like lemon curd - which isn't really curd at all.  It is somewhere between a jelly and a frosting - like the jelly filling in a great doughnut.  Then the cake is topped with an orange butter cream frosting, flavored with some Cointreau.  The last few times I made the frosting (which involves boiling sugar, stirring over simmering water, over ice, and then quickly mixing...in short: it is a very complex frosting.) So the last few times I made it I cooked the sugar too long and ended up with a darker more caramelized frosting (which is delicious but more difficult to make).  This time I aced the recipe - but the frosting is very yellow from the butter and tasted pretty buttery...until I threw in an extra tablespoon of Cointreau :)  The butter color and flavor are not bad - I buy my butter fresh from a particular guy in the market and I've done my share of reading up on butter (inspired by a 2008 New York Times article).  I'm going to say it was the good butter and the fresh Orange that gave it the color.

As you can see, I have put a lot into this cake and have learned a ton.  The payout of all of this is a delicious cake that I am so proud of.  (As a sophomore in college I would have been very offended if you told me I would one day be proud of a cake that I made.)  Technically there are 20 servings but I think you would be hard pressed to get 20 pieces (they will be small) - which brings me to today:  I brought the cake to work and hid it in a small refrigerator on a floor where only 4 people work (one of them being my best friend here).  People are already asking how the cake turned out, telling me they saw me come in with it this morning, and asking what time the cake is coming out.  Do you see where this is going?  There are more than 20 people who literally want a share in the cake.  An honor - but it also means that I may only get 2 bites (half of Paul's small piece...he takes big bites). But do you really think I've been researching and planning for 4 days to only have two bites?  No!  That is why I shaved off a little from the middle and tasted it last night!  In addition to giving my friend a cake for his birthday it was lots of fun, a learning opportunity, friends will like me more, lots positive attention, and by the time you split the cake into all those pieces:  only 40 calories.  :)

*Three side-notes which I couldn't fit in:  1.  The butter article also inspired my orange Christmas cookies which are prominently featured...not my cookies, but the original recipe; 2.  This is a much improved version of the cake from the last posting which was only 2 layers, back in the day before I aced the recipe; 3. Greg saw the cake on Skype last night and said it looked like it belongs in a magazine!  He is my favorite for being the first to inflate my fluffy butter cream ego :)  I really hope no one sets their lunch on top of the cake before we bring it out!

Epilogue:  Of course everyone loved the cake!  Our friend cut really thin pieces (which was okay because it was so tall) and about 20 people had some (including the big boss!).  The biggest compliments were a.) asking for the recipes, b.) a few people sneaking in a second piece, c.) 3 people wiping up the frosting and filling from the tray (with their fingers!) and d.) two colleagues saying I should sell my cakes!  :)  Maybe I'll practice a few more times before I do that.

Cold Discoveries and the last drop of Christmas!

Today happens to be one of the coldest days yet in Tel Aviv.  I don't know this for sure, but it seems like it may be true, so I'll go with it.  Today is also the day that I made a great discovery in my car...well, Paul did:  There is a button that says "Info" and when you turn it the dashboard tells you what the temperature is outside.  15*.....Celcius that is.  ~60*.  Brrrrr!

The Christmas decorations are all put away, the laundary is almost done, and the cookies are gone.  The only part of Christmas that remains are the online gifts bought with gift cards and the thank you notes.  Yesterday the mail room at work was flooded with packages!  I think everyone did the same thing:  shopping after Christmas to hit the sales or spend gift cards. 

Baking Project #1: Orange Sponge Cake
with a Cointreau Butter Cream Frosting - Delicious!



(Or their families didn't send Christmas gifts on time and they are just now arriving.)  Whatever the case, we got 3 packages yesterday!  :) 

The best part about being back is having our kitchen!  It was great before, but now!  Now I have a Kitchenaid Mixer, spring-form cake pans, a tart pan, new flour towels, and a butter crock!  I'm running out of room to put the kitchen toys.  All of these new toys lead me to baking, but I should really be running. Maybe I'll become that person who bakes for everyone else's birthdays and parties!

Plant a Tree - Or so we thought

Yesterday we volunteered with some friends to plants trees on Mount Carmel, near the site where Elijah took 450 prophets for a contest to see whose god could light a fire the fastest (Elijah's god won), and at the site of the recent Carmel fires. We did go to the site of the fire, we didn't see Elijah's altar, and we didn't plant trees as planned.  But it was still fun.

Leading our group was an Israeli fire-fighter and one of the first-responders to the fires.  He is also a member/staff of the KKL - which I'll describe as a.) the largest ngo in Israel; b.) somehow tied to the Jewish National Foundation; c.) plays the role of the Forestry Department; and d.) labels and maintains all of the cool hiking trails we go on (see the past post with the red hamburger trail).  Anyway, this guy gave us a tour of 3 sites on the edge of the fires and then led us to an area that wasn't burned to do some work.  (We couldn't plant trees because "there is a law" (temporary decree?) which prohibits anyone from entering the affected areas.)

The guide gave us a very personal version of the story which began with the planting of the forest.  While our first reaction would be to draw comparisons to yearly fires in Cali, he proposed that the Israeli fires were worse because a.) Israel has a lower citizen/nature ratio so the fire has a greater impact on society; b.) the forest was planted (not natural) so it took many man-hours and dollars to create this (lots of ownership...as opposed to the Disney/Pocahontas theory of "you think you own whatever land you land on..."); c.) the trees aren't indigenous - so they won't grow back naturally; and d.) this is the biggest fire in Israeli history, so it is a really big deal to them.

After the tour and explanations we set to work - trimming the bottom 1/3 of young trees in an effort to prevent future fires.  I cannot explain to you how this helps - but apparently it does.  They gave us all gloves and tree trimmers and set us free on the side of the mountain!  I have to admit, I think I trimmed back more thorny bushes than I did trees, and I don't know if I did helped or hurt the mountain. The time went quickly and in the end, it was pretty fun.

Home...

We are back in Tel Aviv, safe and sound, and the jet lag has not yet caught up with us.  The flights went well, our house is as we left it (plants alive!), the circle is greener, and the weather is a little colder.  Sleeping in our bed last night we smiled and, once again, said "We're home."

But we truely believe that Home is more than the apartment/house and the wonderful toys inside of it.  In Wisconsin I was home with family and despite going to bed at 7 or 8pm, I could not have been happier than changing a flat in a freezing cold parking lot, sipping coffee and playing games after breakfast, or cooking in Grandma's kitchen! 

Ohio was another type of home as I got to spend lots more time with my mom, dad and Shawn (and eventually Paul).  I was so excited to drive to the grocery store and buy anything - regardless of season - and to park a big car in a big free parking space!  It was great! I also got to get drinks in Mansfield with a high school friend and do lots and lots of shopping! (So much that between that and gifts we had to borrow two large suitcases to bring it all back with us!)

From Ohio we went on to Connecticut, to Paul's childhood home.  Connecticut is always fun because we get to see sooo many people!  And this time we got to meet Atlas - our nephew!  In the short amount of time we had there we managed to squeeze in more shopping, New Years Eve, and Paul's birthday - which we celebrated no fewer than 4 times.

Our final stop was Washington, D.C. Oh, how I love that city! A functioning metro, great restaurants and bars, walking everywhere, cute architecture, friends, friends and more friends! D.C. felt like coming home as we crammed a years worth of check-ups, happy hours and dinners into 3 days. I missed a bus or two and walked through some of my favorite neighborhoods and saw some of my favorite people. As one friend put it, the thing we all love about DC is how alive and changing it always is - but that also means that it keeps living and changing when we're not there. There were lots of new restaurants and bar, sidewalks completed and new solar-powered bike-rental stations, but it was still the city I love.  More impactful than the new stuff was the number of people walking down the street or taking the metro, and how much everyone smiled! DC isn't the mid-west, they aren't THAT friendly, but everyone was happily talking to friends or on the phone or just smiling as they walked down the street.  It was so nice!

It was such a great trip and we felt so at home everyplace we went. One of the last things we did in the airport before flying out of the States:  made a list of all of the trips in 2011, plotting when we could next come home and how many days of vacation we'll need!