Let’s just close out eyes and pretend we’re sitting under an orange tree. An orange tree heavy with fruit… but with the occasional late blooming blossom. There are honey bees too. Just a few. The friendly kind. The kind of honeybees that remind you that life is full of creatures big and small… and we all have tasks to do.

Let’s just hang out under our orange tree for a while. Right here in the shade, greeted by little spots of sun as the wind spreads the leaves.

It’s nice here.

Sweet. Thanks. I’m glad you’re here.

Simple.  Big.  Bright.  Tangy.  A game changer, taking your day from overcast to bright and shiny with just a sip.  

Thank you to Tracy and Sunset Magazine for the inspiration.  

Super Citrus Smoothie

     adapted from Sunset Magazine

     Print this Recipe!

Here’s what you’ll need for one big smoothie:  

A juicer

A blender

2 Tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

the juice of 1/2 a grapefruit (save the other half for tomorrow’s smoothie?) 

1/2 cup fresh orange or tangerine juice

2 tablespoons honey

heaping 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 frozen banana (they blend better when frozen)

1/2 cup ice cubes

In a blender, combine juices, yogurt, and honey.  Blend for a few seconds.  Add the ice cubes and blend until smooth.  This recipe makes one giant smoothie.  Yumtown. 

Things that are awesome and things that are not awesome; an incomplete list.

Things that are awesome:

Summer dresses that look great with summer ponytails.

Bathing suits + Palm Springs + Rented Summer House + Sun Screen + Giant Sun Glasses + Mojitos x Infinity = Awesome.

Big, fat bumble bees… come on, they’re precious.

Pulling this beautiful Dutch Baby out of the oven on Easter morning,  sprinkling it with orange sugar and feeling like Julia Child… that’s awesome.

Things that are NOT awesome:

Otherwise perfect vintage dresses that are half a size too small.

Bathing suit shopping… exactly no one likes that, and why on earth are my legs so white!?

Bee stings on the butt.  It happens people.  It really happens.

Not pulling this Dutch Baby out of the oven on Easter morning… that’s not awesome at all.

A Dutch Baby is somewhere between a pancake and a pop over.  I whipped up a thin batter, poured it into a hot, butter-covered skillet, and let it bake for 18 minutes.  As soon as it came out of the oven I attacked it with orange sugar and cut it into giant slices.  It’s as delicious as breakfast gets.  So easy, so crispy with sugar, so perfectly spring.

Dutch Baby with Orange Sugar

adapted from Gourmet April 2009

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• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes (run then under warm water if you’re in a hurry)
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature  ( I used 2% and was happy)
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put skillet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).

Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.

Serve immediately, topped with orange sugar.

I’m a huge breakfast fanatic.  I usually go for something hearty, healthy and full of surprise goodies.  That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes reach for a donut and some coffee, but this go around I opted for old-fashioned oatmeal with the gorgeous flavors of cranberry, orange and almond.  I threw in a bit of brown sugar for good measure, and surrounded my oatmeal with cold milk.  It was a delightful breakfast- satisfying but not too heavy.  It’s the kind of breakfast that convinces you you’re ready to take on the world.  Brilliant

Cranberry Orange Almond Oatmeal

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1 cup water

pinch of salt

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

2 Tablespoons dried cranberries

6 raw or toasted almonds

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

optional:

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

Bring water and salt to a rolling boil in a small sauce pan.  Add oats and reduce to medium heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add 1 Tablespoon of dried cranberries into the cooking oatmeal.

After 5 minutes, remove from heat, and transfer to a serving bowl.  Sprinkle with remaining cranberries, orange zest, almonds, brown sugar and milk.  Enjoy!

Thank you Dawn!  It was so sweet of you to send me these darling cards and pens!  I’ll put them to good use!  They’re absolutely beautiful!  Thank You!!

Chocolate and orange are like a dream to me.  Although my dream last night had nothing to do with chocolate and orange, and everything to do with watching some bizarre alley cat trying to eat giant hissing grasshoppers, or something.  I woke up wanting a thick slice of this cake for breakfast.  You know, to make everything right in the world again.  It’s that simple.

Another reason I think this cake is dreamy is that it’s one moist cake batter, divided into two, flavored, then dumped in a bundt pan.   It’s great for those last minute, in a pinch desserts.

The cake is loaded with sour cream, and is incredibly moist.  The orange zest adds brightness and chocolate and chocolate chips add richness.  It’s absolutely delicious, and perfect if you wake up from bad dreams.

Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook

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3 1/2 cups cake flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter at room temprature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, left at room temperature for 30 minutes

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups sour cream

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

zest of 1 large orange

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla.  Reduce speed to low, add half of flour mixture, and mix until just blended.  Add sour cream, mixing until just combined, then add remaining flour mixture and mix until smooth.

Divide the batter evenly into two bowls.  In one bowl add the orange zest and orange extract and stir to combine.  In the other  bowl add sifted cocoa powder and chocolate chips and stir to combine.

First pour the orange batter into the buttered Bundt pan, spreading it evenly around the bottom of the pan.  Next, simply add the chocolate batter on top of the orange to cover.  No swirling is necessary, although you can swirl the batters together if you like.

Bake until cake is springy to the touch and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove from oven and cool cake in the pan for 30 minutes.  Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

I think I’m supposed to hate cake mix.  I think, once you get a chef’s coat, you are supposed to turn you nose up at all things packaged, pre-mixed, and all around too good to be true.  Well the truth is, I don’t hate cake mix, or at least I don’t hate it as much as I should.

I could bore you with a pro and con list detailing my love hate relationship with cake mix, but I won’t.  I’ll just say this- I love cake mix because my Mom buys it for 35 cents and then passes it along to me, with that oh-so-great-I-found-a-bargain feeling.  Cake mixes are easy beyond belief, moist every time and really hard to screw up.  But the truth is, even easy to make, 35 cent cake mix isn’t really a bargain.  It’s filled with loads of oils and sugars that I can’t even pronounce.  If I can’t pronounce it, there’s a good chance my insides that don’t what to do with it either.  So, you win and you lose.  Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?

I whole heartedly reject what the directions on the cake mix box tells me to do.  If I’m going to make a boxed cake, I’m certainly going to do it my way.  I’m not sure if I can make cake mix couture, but I’m sure as hell going to try.   So to my yellow mix I added lime zest, orange zest, orange juice and toasted coconut.  Hmm…. couture enough?  I don’t know.  I’ll probably have to find a skinny French model wearing a skinny French couture dress to stand next to my cake… then I’ll be able to reasonably call it couture.  Yea…. that’ll do it.

Orange, Lime and Toasted Coconut- Haute Couture

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1 box yellow cake mix

1 box vanilla pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup sour cream

zest of 1 orange

zest of 1 lime

juice from half an orange (a scant 1/4 cup)

1  cup toasted sweetened coconut

Lime Glaze

Juice of 1 lime

1 cup powdered sugar

Toasted Coconut for extra fanciness on top of the cake

1.  Mix all of the ingredients together in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl with a hand mixer, on low for 30 seconds, and then on medium for about 2-3 minutes.  Scape down the bowl as necessary to incorporate all of the ingredients.

2.  Pour the batter in a well greased and floured Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 39-44 minutes, or when a thin knife inserted in the cake comes out clean, and that cake has a nice golden color.

3.   Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Invert the cake onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

4.  Embellish with a lime glaze- The juice of 1 lime added to 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Whisk until no lumps remain.  Pour over Bundt cake, letting the glaze drip down the sides, and sprinkle with toasted coconut

This is one of the recipes in my collection that invariably makes me raise one eyebrow in suspicion.  It’s a Bundt cake that’s is not only flavored by orange juice, it’s flavored by the whole darn orange- pulp, pith and peel.  I’ve made this cake twice now.  It not exactly the effortless Bundt cake you might expect. But a dozen eggs, and two pounds of butter later, I think I have figured out it’s little quirks.  Once the little hiccups are managed, this turns out to be a delightful cake with loads of  kick-you-in-the-mouth orange flavor.

I first saw this recipe in a podcast by Sweet Melissa, a baker lady in New York.

Whole Orange Poppy Seed Cake

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2 whole oranges, seedless Navel

12.8 oz melted butter

6 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

2.  Slice the two oranges into wedges.  Place wedges in the food processor with the blade attachment.  Process oranges until they are pulverized into orange mush.  Depending on your food processor, this can take 2- 5 minutes.  You may need to stop the food processor half way through to scrape down the sides.

This is what the orange will look like when it comes out of the food processor.

3.  Add eggs to the bowl of an electroc mixer.  Turn on low speed.  Slowly add the sugar to the beating eggs.  Once incorporated, add the cooled melted butter in a steady stream.  Once incorporated, add the orange.

4.  Using a large wooden spoon, fold in the dry ingredients.  Stop mixing once all dry ingredients are no longer visible.

5.  Pour batter into very well greased and floured Bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes.

I learned two things the hard way with this cake.

1.  Because of all the orange goodness, this is a very moist, wet cake.  Though a toothpick may come out clean after an hour, indicating that the cake is done, it may still need some time.  I would suggest leaving the cake in a bit longer that your tooth pick tells you.

2.  Let the cake cool in the pan for at least half and hour.  I tried to turn my cake out while it was still warm.  It didn’t work out so well for me.  The top of the Bundt stayed in the pan.  I had to pull the old patch-and-frost maneuver to save it.

Citrus Glaze

Juice of half an orange

Zest of 1 lemon

3 cups powdered sugar.

1. Add juice and zest to powdered sugar.  Wish vigorously until well combined and no lumps are present.  Add more orange juice as necessary to make a thinner glaze.

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