Orange Chocolate Cake with Orange Frosting Filling and Chocolate Glaze

It's memorial weekend, which means it's time to visit the parents for a BBQ. I decided to bake my dad a chocolate cake since he's a choco-holic like me. I used a recipe I've had success with in the past for the cake, adding a few drops of orange essence in place of a 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla essence. Then I sort of created my own simple orange frosting by hand-whisking some softened butter, orange essence, and powdered sugar, using nonfat milk to get the right spreading consistency. Finally I made a chocolate glaze, which I got from allrecipes.com. I'll be bringing it to my parent's home in an hour or so. We're making coconut lime shrimp kabobs,my parents are picking up a six pack of porter, and I've got some vegetarian hot dogs defrosting. Should be an excellent day.

Chocolate Cake 

(I got this off the internet, I can't remember if it was from Cooks.com or Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

2 cups boiling water

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 1/4 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 - 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Just to introduce myself, I'll be a college graduate in 20 days. I am an avid birder, hiker, and quilter. I love to bake, and am learning to cook. I'm mostly vegetarian, been so for 4 years - I eat seafood on occasion. I absolutely love beer, especially porters, and I've had about 99 different good beers, not counting things like coors or miller which in my mind, don't qualify.