Mother Kalamity called this evening to visit. When I was young, she used to get upset with my Nana who would call to visit seemingly not knowing that an entire hour of time on the phone was too much for a working mother with a husband and a farm! Now, my own mother calls to visit and thinks I’m rude if I cut the conversation off before an hour—and I get upset. We have both become our mothers! She told me about her game-playing friends that play dominoes and Bunco on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-9 PM and how their Christmas gathering will be tomorrow night. The theme is hor d’oeurvres and desserts. As I listen to her talk, it dawns on me that she is hinting around that I will make something for her to take (mom doesn’t cook real well either). Well sure mother – It’s 7:00PM and since I leave for work at 5:00AM and return at 5:00 PM I have plenty of time to whip something up! She mentioned the strawberry Bundt cake with lemon icing I made earlier in the year, neither of which I had ingredients for. When I offered to figure something out, she agreed without hesitation.
There was no time to make a cake from scratch but I did want it to be special so I thought I would “special-up” a boxed mix. I had this mix on the shelf:
I grabbed two single-serving Mandarin orange fruit cups out of the fridge and drained them then chopped roughly adding to the partially mixed cake mix. I also wanted it REALLY orange because it’s the holidays and I wanted it to be festive. So, I added 50 drops of yellow and eight drops of red food coloring. It came out really orange but not fake looking. I poured it into the Bundt pan and while it baked, I searched the Internet on what to do besides sprinkling powdered sugar on it. I found it on Food Networks website. The Barefoot Contessa made and orange mini cake with chocolate ganache. I decided to follow one of her tips for keeping a cake moist so while the cake was cooling, I put ¼ Cup orange juice and ¼ Cup sugar in a sauce pan and heated just until sugar was dissolved then I spooned it over the cake after taking out of pan and placing on a wire rack. It took about 2 hours for it to completely cool.
After 2 hours, I placed 1 Cup heavy cream in a saucepan on the stove allowing it to heat up to a simmer but not a boil. Take pan off of burner. Then I put a 10 ounce bag of Cup Dark chocolate chips plus 2 Tablespoons butter in the pan and stirred until it was gooey and chocolaty-smooth………….oh yum! I let it cool just a few minutes.
Then I poured it over top of cake in all its gooey goodness! Now, doesn’t that look like those Receptionist Pen candies that are orange (or raspberry) on the inside and dark chocolate on the outside?
As the Quality Assurance Manager of our house, I had to cut a piece and eat it prior to taking it for so many elderly people to chow down on! Enjoy!
