My dad turned 60 yesterday.  Isn’t that something to think about?

He’s a super guy, my dad is, so naturally I felt it was only right to make him something tasty and delicious for his birthday.  Dad’s been a big emotional supporter of my blag every since the day he started reading it, and is always interested in what new recipes I have in my head.  Supportive parents are great. ^_^

The other cool thing about my dad is that when it comes to baking, he is always happy to try something new.  For his birthdays he tends to give me a “whatever you want” response when I ask him what sort of cake he’d like, which while it initially bothered me I finally found freeing – I knew he’d like whatever I made anyway (as long as, you know, I didn’t turn it into a charcoal briquette…I don’t think he’s that open minded [OR IS HE???]), so I started trying to think of something creative and tasty.

One of my very first excursions into baking was actually for him on Father’s Day about two years ago.  I made him a very crunchy chocolate cake (that tasted more like butter and flour than chocolate) with melting vanilla icing, as it was June and blazingly hot.  He put on a great face and claims to this day that the cake “wasn’t that bad”, but I know better (though appreciate his desire to not break my spirit).  Maybe he’s so open minded because he knows anything I’ve baked since that day must be better.  At least I’ve shown improvement, right?

Anyway, so what to make this year?  After much deliberation I finally decided on a chocolate-orange flavor of some sort, which I finally narrowed down to a bundt.  I really enjoy baking with oranges because so far every recipe I’ve made that includes them has really picked up the flavor and has been a pleasure to eat.  Orange and chocolate is always an acceptable pairing, and with my mother in the house it’s always recommended to include chocolate so everyone can be happy.

I was really happy with the way the cake turned out except for one thing that made me really angry, and one thing that made me kind of sad.

The anger came when I broke the cake while removing it from the pan. >.<  It was completely my fault, too; it wasn’t some bit of bad luck that happened to swing my way.  I was in a hurry to get the thing out of the pan and onto my new cake stand so didn’t take proper precautions to loosen the cake up first.  I did a quick run-around with my rubber spatula, then turned it upside down and gave it a rough shake – too rough.  About a quarter of it stayed in the pan, while the rest plopped onto the stand.  Curses!

The sadness had to do with how the cake finally tasted.  Don’t get the wrong idea – the cake was good.  It was cool and moist, not terribly crumbly.  It was pretty too.  But I felt it was…overwhelmingly orangey.  I know I mentioned earlier that I like orange in my desserts, but this one I felt may have gone better with slightly less orange in it.  The chocolate flavor was there, but rather than being equal to that of the orange, it tasted like much more of a second thought…which in retrospect I guess it kind of was.

Still, not bad – very enjoyable (and not crunchy or melty at all!).  If you love orange, this cake should make it onto your list.

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Thanks for putting up with all my culinary experiments! <3

Orange Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake

Adapted from Black Book Kitchen Diaries.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp orange zest (to reduce the orangy-ness, consider reducing to 2 tbsp)
• 3 tbsp orange juice (to reduce the orangy-ness, consider reducing to 2 tbsp)
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate

Instructions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light’n’fluffy
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each in completely.
3. Mix in the zest, orange juice, sour cream, and vanilla.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients.
5. Grease/flour your favorite bundt pan.
6. Pour half of the orange batter into the pan.
7. Melt the chocolate and mix it in with the remaining batter.
8. Pour the chocolate batter over the orange and use a knife or skewer to swirl about the colors.
9. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.
10. Cool for 10-15 minutes before running around the edges thoroughly with a rubber spatula or butter knife and shaking out of the pan.
11. Consume!