A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Orange Cake

Welcome back!  Yesterday, March 21st was the first day of spring!  Today, because Ohio, it looks like this...So what better thing to do than bake? 

True Confession time - I hate baking cakes.  Detest it.  My children will probably end up being serial killers because I didn't bake their birthday cakes, or it's evil offspring, the cupcake.  All my love and money goes to Caroline Eder (a friend and phenomenal baker), Costco and Kroger for their contributions to my children's cakey happiness.  The thing is, my father, God rest his soul these past 29 years, was a phenomenal cake baker, like award-winning-from-scratch-mile-high-cake baker.  Towards the end of his life he could barely stand and yet he could turn out a triple layer walnut cake that would earn a handshake from Paul Hollywood!  You'd think I would have inherited the baking gene but dammit, nope.  Well, here goes nothing.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
3 eggs (yolks)
1 cup flour
1 1/4 teas. baking powder
1 orange (juice)

Directions
Beat egg yolks until creamy - add sugar and blend thoroughly. Measure orange juice and add water to make {1 or 1/2} cup liquid.  Add flour and bak. pow. alternately to first mixture with orange juice.  Fold in egg whites.  Bake in layers.  You can use the third egg white to make a boiled icing.  This is a nice light little cake and can be make in no time.

Of course, 'no time' is what we've been given here, along with 'no temperature' - I chose the often used 350 degrees and am staring with 30 minutes.  I'm also completely stumped by her handwriting - should I add enough liquid to the squeezed orange juice to make 1/2 cup liquid or 1 cup?  Fair warning, I split the difference.  And even though the recipe didn't call for it, I beat the egg whites into stiff peaks before folding them into the batter.  I own no cake pans (I. Don't. Bake.), so I sprayed the hell out of a bundt pan (I do make coffee cake, which isn't really cake), poured the batter in, set the timer for 30 minutes and unlike the contestants in the Great British Baking show who crouch agonizingly by their ovens, waltzed in the living room, ignoring the cake completely. 

Imagine my surprise then when 35 minutes later, the cake was a lovely high risen golden color and smelled delicious.  Now imagine my total disgust when upon removing it from the oven, much like a deflating balloon, this lovely confection compressed itself into the size and shape of a hockey puck.  Seriously, an hour after I took this picture, it's gotten even flatter still.  Mind you, it smells wonderful.  And it tastes good, very orangey but it sure isn't light, per Kate's description.  So what went wrong?

Well, as near as I can research, this cake is a type of 'foam' cake called a sponge.  According to the website "The Joy of Baking" (what a ridiculous name and a total fabrication), "these cakes have a high proportion of eggs to flour and are leavened solely by the air beaten into whole eggs or egg whites.  They contain very little, if any, fat and have a spongy texture."  Well, darn - I thought she meant my sponge cake was supposed to resemble a flat dried kitchen sponge - nailed it!  What did I do wrong?

Well, the Joy of Baking says that 'Sponge Cake gets most of its rise from the air whipped into the eggs.' Problem 1 - I probably didn't beat the egg yolks enough.  It also uses an ungreased pan and I definitely sprayed the life out of the pan.  They recommend using an ungreased tube pan (think angel food cake).  And lastly, I'm still unsure of the water content, as it might have been too much.  

Finally, Kate did not include a boiled icing recipe in the book, so I will not make one.  Instead, I'll just dust thing with powdered sugar and drop kick it to the table.  Hubs will be so glad I baked, he might not notice the chipped tooth when he bites into it.  

Verdict?  Tastes delicious.  And it was relatively quick and easy to make.  But unless someone can figure out the correct proportions, I can only take so much failure in my life.  NEXT!