Orange Blossom Cake~With Recipe!

I had a whole 9-inch white cake left over from making the practice cake. It was such a good soft, sweet, vanilla cake that I couldn’t let it go to waste. So I iced it. But I figured I might as well have a little fun with the icing, since I was practicing new recipes and techniques. I made a buttercream but instead of flavoring it with vanilla, I used a little orange extract. The icing is sweet with a subtle orange undertone. Making the icing is a piece of cake! Just cream the butter and powdered sugar in an electric mixer on medium speed (or by hand with a wooden spoon). Once the butter and sugar is combined and fluffy looking, mix in the milk, flavoring and food coloring. Make sure everything is well combined. Put most of the icing on top of the cake. Using an offset icing spatula (or a butter knife) start to smooth out toward the edges of the cake. When you get icing to the edges, let some start to fall over to the sides and start smoothing it out. Turn the plate to get all around the cake and bringing more icing down onto the sides as you do. Add the rest of the icing to the top or sides as needed.

Buttercream Icing:
1 1/3 sticks (5/6 cup) butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp of milk mixed with
1/8 tsp good quality orange extract (or to taste)
To make a more classic vanilla buttercream add 1/4-1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract instead of the orange extract.
food coloring (if desired)

Enough to liberally ice 1 one layer 9-in cake, to ice an average two layer cake, just double the quantities