Buttermilk Spice Cake with Amaretto-Macerated Oranges

A few months ago, my mother-in-law gifted me with a pretty neat cake pan, called a Mary Ann Cake Pan.



I kept thinking of ways to use it, but never got 'round to it. Finally, I decided I just had to come up with something...and since I was giving it to the in-laws, I had more options.

Last weekend, after buying up some decently-priced oranges, I finally had it: a buttermilk and spice cake, topped with whipped cream and oranges soaked in syrups or liquor.

Using the cake half of this recipe, the base is uncharacteristically light. As Matt pointed out, most spice cakes are very dense, but this one? Not even a little. Wonderfully spicy, with a strong nutmeg scent (again, I didn't eat it, so I don't have a first-hand report...perhaps Matt'll chime in later).

Topped with freshly whipped cream, flavored with both vanilla and vanilla sugar (Matt said it was the best whipped cream I'd made yet), then orange sections which had soaked in a ginger syrup and Amaretto.

It's a great pan, and now that I've survived the inaugural cake, I'm coming up with all kinds of flavor combinations (those frozen strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are calling me...).

Best of all, I got my baking 'fix', without the calories!

(I stayed home, nursing a sore back with iced tea and a Bob Baer's See No Evil, so Matt assembled the cake at his parent's house, as it had only recently come out of the oven when he was ready to go)





Tagged with: Food and Drink, Cakes, Baking, Oranges, Dessert, Amaretto