Orange Amaretto Pound Cake

I sat down about 45 minutes ago to write this post. I uploaded my pictures, then got online and signed into blogger. Next thing I knew, I was on the local animal shelter website looking at all their adoptable pets. No idea how I got there. Must have blacked out :) Right now I honestly can't remember what train of thought led me to look for adoptable pets, but regardless, I found some cute ones. There was a chocolate lab named Chunkamuffin who looked like a sweetie-pie. She reminded me of another "chunky" lab I know :) Joe and I definitely need to make a stop by the shelter soon to play with the animals. We've gone a few times in the past and always have fun just petting and visiting the cats and dogs. I'm always sad to leave without a pet of my own to bring home, but hopefully it brightened the animals day and maybe got them a little more socialized so that they'll get adopted sooner. Eventually I'll wear Joe down and we'll come home with a little kitty or big dog :)

Now that I'm out of my cute animal trance, I can get back to the point of this post. I made this cake a couple weekends ago I guess, but I honestly just haven't felt like blogging since the last post. Spending all day at work just leaves me uninspired when I get home. Oh well, at least I have a job, right? That's what I keep telling myself. But there I go getting off track again! The reason for making this cake was simply to have something to test my baking goop on. The recipe came from the Vintage Cakes cookbook that Gracie gave me for Christmas. The Honey Bee Cake I made back in January was also from this book. However, if you go looking for an "Orange Amaretto Pound Cake" in the cookbook, you won't find it. The recipe I followed was actually for a Harvey Wallbanger Cake. It called for Galliano (a type of Italian liquor) but I didn't feel like buying some just for this cake, so I used Amaretto instead. Since the Galliano is what made it a Harvey Wallbanger Cake (named after a cocktail), I couldn't call what I was making by the same name. Hence the "Orange Amaretto Pound Cake". This cake was wonderful. Not too fancy, perfect for snacking, dense and very flavorful. Needless to say, I ate a lot of it. Here's the recipe:

Orange Amaretto Pound Cake
makes 1 bundt cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sifted cake flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. fine sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 t. vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
5 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup Amaretto (or Galliano for a true Harvey Wallbanger Cake)
1/4 cup vodka

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
5 T orange juice
*you could swap out some tablespoons of orange juice for amaretto or vodka, but I didn't want the glaze to be too boozy in case I decided to bring it to work.

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour (or use baking goop) the inside of a fluted bundt pan.

- Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt into a bowl, then whisk the mixture by hand to ensure that the ingredients are well mixed.

When I bought this sifter for 25 cents at a garage sale, the lady selling it said, "you'll never use that". Ha! I showed her :) 

- Add the butter, sugar and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium high until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

- Reduce the speed to low and drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Return to medium-high speed and beat for another 2 minutes.

- Blend in the eggs one at a time, adding the next one just after the previous one is blended in. Stop the mixer frequently and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

I've found that if you just put all the eggs in one measuring cup then, when you pour them out, they'll naturally pop out one at a time. 

- In a separate bowl, combine the orange juice, Amaretto and vodka. With the mixer on low speed, stir in the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the orange juice mixture. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

- Beat until just barely combined after each addition, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions. Stop mixing just shy of complete incorporation and finish mixing by hand with a rubber spatula.

Go ahead, taste a spoonful. I won't judge :)

- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan firmly on the counter to settle the batter. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer poked into the cake comes out just barely clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and finish cooling.

- To make the glaze, whisk the powdered sugar and orange juice together and drizzle over the cake. I placed my cake on a rack over a pan so I could collect the glaze that dripped and reuse it :)

That's it!  I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but it was simple and came together quickly. The hardest part is letting it bake then cool! I have several other posts on backlog that I need to share, so we'll see if I can motivate myself to do that this week. I hope you all have a good night and a great week. Talk to you later!