Orange Blossom Cake with Fresh Berries

Was just done having 5 people over for dinner. It was so much fun! Plus we got a firework spectacular show at end the evening. We had Spinach Salad (without hard boiled eggs - but with grilled shrimp) for appetizer, beef massaman curry with steamed jasmine rice for main dish, and this cake for dessert. I got original recipe from Epicurious.com. I made a bunch of changes to the recipe: I had only 8 eggs in the refrigerator - so I used 8 instead of 9 and adjusted all other ingredients with my mad math skills. I made a 9 inch round cake and 12 cupcakes out of the batter. I only served the 9-inch cake instead of 2 layers of 10-inch cakes. It's more manageable for 6 people.

There's a special ingredient for this recipe: Orange Blossom Water. I got mine from Dean and Deluca. Oh my god.... The thing smells heavenly. I wish I can use it as perfume. It transformed the cake from ordinary sponge cake to the most fragrant and delicious cake I have ever tasted...



Ingredients

• Cake


• 2 sticks butter (1 cup) - room temperature


• 1 3/4 cup sugar (1 1/4 cups + 1/2 cups)


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 4 cups self-rising cake flour


• 1 1/4 cups whole milk


• 8 egg whites



• Syrup


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup water


• 1 table spoon orange blossom water



• Frosting


• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) - room temperature


• 1 package cream cheese (8 oz.) - room temperature


• 1/2 a box confectioner sugar (about 2 cups)


• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water



• Berries


• 1/2 pound strawberries - half the best looking 6 strawberries and quarter the rest


• 1 pint blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners. Grease 9-ince springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.


2. With electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla.


3. Alternately, stir in flour and milk into butter mixture in 3 batches.


4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer at medium speed until foamy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar while the mixer is running. Beat until the mixture forms peak.


5. Gently fold egg white mixture into the batter until there's no white streak.


6. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes and the cake for 40 minutes. Cool cupcakes and keep for other occasion. Cool cake in a pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely.



7. To make syrup, boil water and sugar together. Reduce heat to medium low and let reduce to about a cup. Turn off the heat. Add orange blossom water. Let cool completely.



8. To make frosting, beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add sugar. Add orange blossom water.



9. To assemble, slice off the dome top of the cake. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Spoon half the syrup on top of the bottom layer. Pile half of the frosting on top of the cake. Sprinkle quartered strawberries and half of blueberries on top of the frosting. Press the fruit a little - making sure that the surface is quite flat.


10. Place the second half of the cake on top of fruit. Spoon the rest of syrup on the cake surface. Frost with the rest of the frosting. Decorate with the rest of strawberries and blueberries.

It took me 2 days to prepare this cake. I baked the cake on Friday night. Prepared syrup in the afternoon the next day. And 2 hours later I whipped the frosting and assembled the cake. A lot of work - but it was well worth it. The cake was beautiful , not too sweet, and smelled like fresh summer.