This Orange Spice Cake with Cran-Raspberry Filling and Vanilla Bean Frosting has a combination of flavors that will awaken all of your senses!
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Ingredients
Cake
2cupscake flour
2tspbaking powder
½tspbaking soda
1tspsalt
⅛tspground cloves
½tspcinnamon
1 ½cupssugar
½cupoil
¾cupbuttermilk
¼cuporange juice
1Tbsorange zest
3eggs- at room temperature
Filling
1cupcranberries
⅓cupwater
½cupsugar
1Tbslemon juice
1cupraspberries- fresh or frozen
2tspcorn starch
Frosting
1cupbutter- at room temperature
½cupshortening
5cupspowdered sugar
1tspvanilla
2vanilla beans
pinchof salt
12Tbsmilk- plus more if needed
Optional: sugared cranberries and orange zest as garnish
Instructions
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3, 6 inch round cake pans (or 2, 8 inch round pans) with parchment paper, and then grease and flour the pans.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cloves, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl mix the remaining cake ingredients. Slowly add them to the mixer, and mix until evenly combined, about 20-40 seconds.
Divide the cake batter evenly among the cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, on a lower oven rack, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Bake the 8 inch pans for about 30 minutes.)
When the cakes are baked, invert them onto a cooling rack, so they cool upside down. Let them cool like that for about 15 minutes, before removing them from the pan. Then cool completely.
Filling
While the cakes are cooling, make the filling.
Start with the cranberries in a pot over medium heat, with the 1/3 cup water, and 1/2 cup sugar.
Let the liquid boil, and the berries pop. Once the berries have burst use a potato masher to mash the berries.
Then pass the mashed berries through a sieve, with the liquid in the pan. Use a spoon to help push all the liquid through the sieve. Discard everything remaining in the sieve, all the berry skins.
Return the cranberry liquid to the pot and add the raspberries, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Stir, and mash the raspberries. Let the mixture come to a low boil, then remove from heat and let cool.
Frosting
To make the frosting, add butter and shortening to the bowl a stand mixer. Cream them together on medium speed.
Add half of the powdered sugar and beat again, add some milk- 2 Tbs at a time- then the remaining powdered sugar, vanilla, the insides of the vanilla beans, salt, and milk as needed. Turn the mixer on again and add more milk as necessary.
Beat until the frosting is the consistency you want.
Assembly
Before assembling the cake, level the cake tops if necessary.
To assemble the cake, start with one of the cake layers, pipe a ring of frosting around the top edge and fill the inside with the cran-raspberry filling.
Top with another layer of cake and repeat with the ring of frosting and fill with the filling.
Top with the last layer of cake.
Frost the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting, crumb coat, then let it chill in the fridge or freezer to firm the frosting. Then spread the finish layer of frosting over the whole cake. If you want the rustic look, like in the pictures, use your offset spatula to make gentle 'C' shaped brush strokes over the frosting, lifting at the ends of the stoke.
Optional- top the cake with sugared cranberries and orange zest. Line the bottom edge of the cake with more sugared cranberries.
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