Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

You guys, it has not been a good week. I mean, I've said that before, in like a "Wow, I'm so busy, this week is crazy, whew!" But this... this has not been a good week.

This week was my first week in my new job, and that part of it has been great. A little crazy, but in a good way.

But also. I got into a cark wreck on Tuesday. Bodily, I am fine. Car-ily... not so much. And since I was the rear-ending car, it's of course going to go down on the record as my fault. So now I'm probably out a bunch of money we don't really have, and we're down to one car this week. Which you know, is sort of fun in a bonding activity kind of way, but certainly not in a convience way.

But as usual, all of that drifted away as soon as I started sifting my flour. Baking is like therapy, and I should probably start some sort of program for it.

Oh by the way... this cake is awesome. You should probably make it, even if you haven't had the kind of week that I had.

Also, don't be cheap and have to beg your husband to do this math- just buy cake flour.

Your ingredients: cake flour, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream, an orange, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt

Sift together all the dry ingredients except the cocoa powder. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in your eggs one at a time, beat well between each egg. Beat in your vanilla.

Now add in half your flour mixture and beat until combined. Now add in the sour cream, mix it in until just combined, then add the rest of the flour mixture. Your mixer is going to be working really hard at this point, but don't worry, that's just how this cake rolls.

Now- here's where it gets interesting. Divide your batter evenly into 2 bowls. In one bowl, add the orange juice and orange zest and mix together. In the other bowl, mix in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Spread your orange batter into the bottom of the bundt pan evenly, then spread the chocolate batter on top of that evenly. Now bake it!

Voila! A very pretty, fancy-looking (slightly blurry, sorry) cake that tastes heavenly!

That makes you forget, for a second, about your smushed-up, towed, leaking fluid car. For a second.

Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

Adapted very slightly from the always fabulous Joy the Baker

3 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks butter, room temperature

4 eggs, room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups sour cream

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp. orange juice

4 tbsp. sifted cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Generously grease a bundt pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg. Beat in the vanilla. Add half the flour mixture and beat to combine. Add the sour cream, beat until just combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture, beat until the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter evenly into 2 bowls. In one bowl, put the orange zest and orange juice and mix. In the other bowl, put the chocolate chips and sifted cocoa powder and mix.

Spread the orange batter into the bottom of the bundt pan and smooth out. Spread the chocolate batter on top of that, and smooth out.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Orange-Mango Bars

Ta-da! Something else new and different! It's fruity! Sure, it's still a bar, but it's a deliciously sweet and fruity bar. As you can probably tell from the photo, it's been raining here off and on for the last week or so, and I'm pretty tired of it.

So we needed something for desert this week that was sunshin-y!

Your ingredients: Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, oranges, and a mango- ingredient arrangement this week by The Husband, who was very proud of himself.

Mix together some flour, sugar, and butter until it looks dough-y and ready for being a crust. Then press it into the bottom of a foil-lined 9x13, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown.

Squeeze all 3 of your oranges out, then squeeze some mango juice into a bowl, add some more sugar, flour, and the eggs, until it looks like this.

Then pour it on top of the crust and bake some more! It's that easy! Don't worry, the middle will still be very jiggly when you pull it out of the oven- it will set as it cools. Yum, yum.

Orange-Mango Bars

Adapted from From Apples to Zucchini

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

Filling:

Fresh-squeezed juice from 3 orange, about 3/4 cup

Juice of 1 mango

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In an electric mixer on low speed, beat together the crust ingredients until they look like a soft dough. Press it evenly into the bottom of the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Mix together the juices, eggs, remaining flour and sugar until thoroughly combined. Then pour the mixture over the crust and bake for another 22 minutes or so. The middle will still be very jiggly, but it will set as it cools.