The Portly Chef

In preparation for a Super Bowl XLI party, I began working on a new recipe based on a traditional tres leches cake. I studied a few recipes, including this recipe for a coconut tres leches cake. Given that it was a Colts party, I wanted a blue flavoring to replace the coconut and could only come up with blueberries — and I thought blueberry juice would most likely not be a suitable substitute for the coconut milk, for (a) taste reasons, and (b) because it isn’t milk I really wouldn’t have a tres leches cake. So it was back to the drawing board.

After wrestling with the options, I finally decided to use fresh oranges as the additional flavor. After two disastrous attempts, my recipe requires the following ingredients:

For the cake:

• 6 eggs, separates into whites and yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• zest of 1 orange
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk (don’t use nonfat)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

For whipped cream:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoon (or a smidge less) powdered sugar

For the orange peels:

• quartered peels of 4 large oranges
• 1 cup and 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger (fresh or crystalized)
• 16 oz semisweet chocolate

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees farenheit and set out the butter, so that it will be at room temperature when you are ready to grease a 13×9 inch glass (Pyrex) baking dish.

Combine the 1 cup sugar with the six egg yolks and beat with an electric mixer until a creamy, fluffy yellow. This will take longer than you think. Set aside the beaten egg yolks.

In another bowl, after cleaning the beater, beat egg whites until medium peaks form, approximately a minute and a half. Mix one third of the whites into the yolks to lighten the yolks, then fold in the remaining whites. Be gentle.

Take one cup flour and add in the zest of one orange. Aerate the flour with a dry whisk or a fork to remove as many clumps as possible from the flour. Sprinkle the flour over the egg mixture and, with a rubber spatula, fold to incorporate. Do not over mix — only fold until you see no white floury streaks remaining in the batter.

Pour this batter into a buttered baking dish and bake for 22 to 25 minutes at 325 F. It will look like you don’t have enough batter, but you do — trust me.

While baking, mix the milks and whisk to incorporate. From this milk mixture, pour off 1/2 cup and discard. Now add to the remaining milk mixture the 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, in effect replacing the 1/2 cup just discarded.

Remove the cake from the oven and carefully poke holes all over the surface with a toothpick. You will need to replace the toothpick often, as it will become sugary and pull up pieces of the cake. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes have elapsed, pour the milk and orange juice mixture over the cake, allowing the soaked cake to sit for another 45 minutes. Then cover and refrigerate overnight (no cutting corners here!!)

For the whipped cream:

Mix heavy cream and powdered sugar, beating by hand until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate.

For the chocolate candied orange peels:

I can’t claim credit for the idea behind this genius dish, but the instructions are largely my own. The idea came from the delectable gift baskets from The Inn at Little Washington, which are given away at the end of dinner.

Place the quartered orange peels in a saucepan and cover with cold tap water. Bring to a quick boil, pour off boiling water, replace with cold water, and boil again. Bring the peels to a boil at least 3 times, or longer if necessary to make the peels tender. Once tender, drain and slice the peels into quarter-inch wide strips.

In the saucepan combine 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water with a pinch of salt. Boil the mixture until it threads (242 degrees farenheit on a candy thermometer). Add all of the strips of peel and cook over low heat (3 on a scale of 1 to 10) until the syrup is absorbed. A little extra syrup may remain, but the vast majority should be taken by the peels. While cooking, mix the 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons grated ginger in a pie pan or other wide dish.

Carefully remove the peels from the syrup and place into the pie pan. Roll the peels until they are coated. Set the coated peels on parchment paper.

While allowing the peels to cool, melt the chocolate, either in a double boiler or incrementally in the microwave. Dip each peel into the chocolate, covering 1/2 to 3/4ths of the peel in chocolate. Refrigerate, again on parchment.

Serve the cake with a dollop whip cream and one candied peel on top, with a few other candied peels on the plate as edible garnish.