Alana
My friend Stephen is getting married this December, and I am SO excited for his wedding! Firstly, I think it’s going to be ridiculously fun, secondly because Stephen and Ashlea (his fiance) have asked Theresa and I to bake their wedding cake 🙂
Theresa and I have known for a while that Ash wanted a naked cake for their wedding. This is hugely relieving in many ways, because it will be easier to assemble at the wedding venue and we don’t need to worry about decorating it. Naked cakes do present a bit of a problem however. Because they are not covered in frosting, they can dry out easily. Luckily Ash was thinking of pound cake would be a good choice for the wedding, and found a really excellent recipe. The cake itself is orange spice, and it is paired with a Grand Marnier syrup. We’re hoping that the syrup will help keep it moist.
Not the most polished looking cake around, but it was a pretty good start!
We tested out the recipe as our starting point, and it was DELICIOUS. We baked it in two 6 inch pans so we could layer it in the naked cake style. It also let us measure out how much batter the recipe made, which will let us put a consistent amount in each size of pan. We’re going to need so many eggs.
Regardless of whether we stick with this cake for the wedding, this recipe is a keeper!
Orange Spice & Grand Marnier Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground clove
- 7 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp Grand Marnier
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup Grand Marnier
Directions
- Prepare your pan by lining it with parchment paper and greasing the sides. Preheat oven to 330 degrees.
- Sift together the dry ingredients in a bowl, excluding the sugar. Mix together the orange juice, vanilla and Grand Marnier.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar, mixing well between additions. Mix in orange zest.
- Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer, combine, then add about ½ of the orange juice mixture, and combine. Continue to alternate adding the flour and orange juice mixtures.
- Pour the batter into your pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour + 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven. Let the cake sit in the pan for about 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
- To make the syrup, combine the sugar and water in a small sauce pan. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved, then add the Grand Marnier. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes, or until it thickens a little bit.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the syrup all over the top and sides of the cake. Use ½ the syrup, wait a minute or two until it soaks in, then use the second half.
- Let the cake sit for about 30 minutes for the syrup to distribute itself within the cake.
- Enjoy!
Chateau Gateau 