Orange & Nectarine Layer Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream
This is a great cake to make for mothers day, although I don’t make it exclusively for that.
It’s a subtle moreish orange flavour cake, flavoured with lots of fresh oranges and then sandwiched together with a sweet white chocolate and orange buttercream with of course, small pieces of fresh nectarines.
It’s the addition of the melted white chocolate to the frosting that makes it special and the addition of the nectarines which makes the cake itself stay fresh and not too rich.
Having a cake that is layered, always looks impressive when presented in the middle of a table, and if this cake is for mothers day, it’s certainly a worthy cake to gift a ‘thank you’ to your mum.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Layers of delicious
What You Need
Cake
340g Castor Sugar
3540g Self Raising Flour
340g Cooking Margarine – Room temperature – See Tip Box
4 Large Eggs
3 Large Oranges
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Preparing the tins to make sure the cake doesn’t stick
White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
500g Icing Sugar – Plus 2 tbsp – Sieved
200g Salted Butter – Softened to room temperature
100g White Chocolate
2 Large Oranges
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Add the orange zest the same time the flour is added.
Assembly
4 Ripe Nectarines – Stone removed and the flesh cut into small pieces and mixed with a couple of teaspoons of orange juice - See Tip Box
How It’s Done
Set the oven to 180c
Prepare three shallow 8’ cakes tins by first wiping the inside with a layer of cooking margarine or butter
Dust the insides of each of the tins with flour, tapping out any excess.
Cut out a circles of non-stick baking parchment to fit the bottom of each tin and place it in the bottom.
Set the prepared tins aside until needed.
Place the cooking margarine into a bowl of an electric mixer (or use a hand held electric mixer) and let it beat until it is paler and lighter in colour.
Add the sugar and let it beat until it becomes lighter and increases in volume, making sure to scrape down the bowl a few times.
In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder and the grated rind off all three oranges. Add the juice of one of the oranges and the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture and using a large metal spoon or a silicone spatula, carefully fold the flour mixer in to the wet mixture – Making sure not to over mix. As soon as the flour has disappeared, stop mixing. – See Tip Box
Make sure the tops are level
Once the batter is ready, divide it between the three prepared tins and gently level the top.
Place the tins into the hot oven and bake for 20-25 minutes – See Tip Box
Bake until the tops are a golden brown, the middle of the cakes bounce back when gently touched or a toothpick when inserted, comes out clean.
Leave the cakes in the tin to cool completely.
Once the cakes are completely cold, make the frosting.
Let them cool on the tin
Frosting
Place the white chocolate into a bowl and melt it by either pinging it in the microwave at 15 second intervals, mixing it in between, or placing it in a bowl and sitting it over a pan of boiling water.
Once melted, set it aside to cool.
While the chocolate is cooling, place the softened butter into a bowl of an electric mixer and beat until it is light in colour and fluffy – scrape down the bowl a few times as it beats.
Once the butter has increased in size and is fluffy, add the sifted icing sugar, the grated zest from two oranges and the vanilla extract.
Beat slowly until the icing sugar is mixed in.
While keeping the machine running, add the melted chocolate making sure that it gets completely incorporated.
One teaspoon at a time, add the orange juice, all the while eating, until the frosting is smooth and spreadable.
Before using the frosting, let it sit for 5 minutes.
The frosting should be very light in colour
Assembly
Remove the cold cakes from the tins, remembering to gently peel off the parchment from the bottom of the cakes.
Place a little bit blob of the frosting just to stop the first cake from moving around.
Turn the first cake upside down and lay it on top of the blob of frosting. – See Tip Box
Put less than a third of the frosting on top of this first layer, and smooth it out.
Spread a few spoonfuls of the chopped nectarine over the top of the frosting.
Repeat with the rest of the layers
Turn the second cake upside down and lay it on top of the nectarines.
Repeat with the frosting and nectarine.
Turn the last cake upside down and add more of the frosting to the top pf the cake. – You may not need it all – See Tip Box
Put the rest of the chopped nectarines around the edge of the cake gently pushing them onto the frosting to form a pattern around the outside rim of the cake.
Serve the cake at room temperature but store in a cook place.
More than one slice
Tip Box
Cooking Margarine – I have a general rule when baking of using cooking margarine for cakes and butter for biscuits. I feel that the margarine makes a lighter cake while the butter keeps the biscuits crisp.
Over mixing – Once the flour is added, over mixing could make the cake tough to eat.
Baking – All ovens are different so adjust the baking time accordingly.
Upside down cake – Laying the cakes upside down when beginning to decorate means the bottom, which I now the top, is straight giving a level surface to decorate.
Leftover frosting – There is always a little leftover frosting when I make cakes, and I never throw it away. I package it up and put it in the freezer. As I’m always baking mini cakes for grand kids, I always have some ready made frostings to use for the tops.
Adding orange juice to the cut nectarines - Soft fruit when cut has a tendency to go dark when it hits the air. . Its the air that does this. Adding a small amount of citrus somehow stops this from happening.
Chopped nectarines
