Orange Pineapple Cake with Orange Marmalade Buttercream

Today is my awesome husband’s birthday! Happy birthday, Sweetie! I am a fortunate girl to have found such a caring, funny, thoughtful, hard-working, honest, AMAZING husband. He’s an all around fantastic dude and I love him more than he could ever know.

But. . . he is also sick and twisted. (Which, in all honesty, amuses me to no end!) His birthday request? A pinata. Ok, easy enough. More specifically a baby seal pinata. To club. Yes, a baby seal to club. See? Sick! Twisted! HILARIOUS!

If my twisted husband has not already offended you with his pinata request, it gets better. When asked what kind of candy I should use to fill the pinata he answered, “Red”. That’s right, a sweet little baby seal pinata bursting with red candy. It’s gonna look like a massacre!

I tried to find a baby seal pinata. I searched online for days with no luck. Go figure. I had to resort to making one. And he came out pretty awesome if I do say so myself. He also took a long time to make!

We had a few friends over this weekend for a little bday bbq and seal clubbing. It was so sad to club him. I gave him sad blue eyes. 😦

Most of our friends have kids.  I’m sure they were thrilled to have their children participate in the massacre. Those will be the pictures that will keep them out of politics later in life.

After the kids all took their turns clubbing the seal, it was Tim’s turn. His first hit was so hard and direct that it ripped the rope out of the paper maiche and he ended up actually clubbing it on the floor until it bled red candy.

Oh, I should also mention that one of my husband’s favorite jokes is, “So a seal walks into a club. . .”  That’s the whole joke.

And he really likes that picture that circulates on Facebook or Pinterest from time to time that has an illustration of baby seals on a dance floor under a disco ball and it says “Stop clubbing, Baby Seals!”

Hopefully you have a sense of humor or you will find this all completely horrific. Some people have such delicate sensibilities. I am usually not one of them. Lighten up people! Life is too short.

Aside from the super awesome pinata, I also made a pretty awesome cake. It wasn’t fancy or 3 layered or decorated to look like something amazing. (like a seal) It was just yummy.

Although I did slice up a fresh pineapple and oven dried the slices to look like flowers and stuck them on the icing. I got the idea on Pinterest.

I made it in a 9 x 13 because I wanted to soak it with an orange syrup before I frosted it. It was nice and moist and orangy. Yes, orangy. . it’s a word in my world.

The buttercream really made this cake. It had a very orange cream-ish flavor to it. Good enough to eat with a spoon.

Or on graham crackers. Which is what I did right after I made it. I had a big bowl of buttercream in front of me and a huge desire to eat it. A spoon is good but graham crackers and icing are a wonderful combo. It used to be a special treat when I was a kid. My mom would open a can of frosting and smear it on graham crackers for us. I thought she was brilliant! It’s so good.

I hadn’t had graham crackers with frosting in years. While looking at that big bowl of buttercream I suddenly remembered how good that used to be and I just happened to have a brand new box of graham crackers in the cupboard.  Voila! I highly recommend it.

Orange Pineapple Cake with Orange Marmalade Buttercream

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temp

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 small can crushed pineapple (I think they are 8-10 ounces?)

11 oz can mandarin oranges and juice they are packed in

2 tsp vanilla

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Takes about 4 minutes or so. I used my stand mixer.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Once the butter and sugar are light and fluffy, add the eggs, pineapple, oranges, and vanilla. Mix well. (No need to chop the oranges, the mixer will do that for you.)

Add the flour mixture and mix until well incorporated.

Pour into prepared pans. Makes a 9 x 13, or 2 8×8 round or about 24 cupcakes. I doubled the recipe and made a 9×13 and 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees. 30 minutes for the larger cakes. 20-25 for the cupcakes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely  before icing.

Orange Syrup (to drizzle on cake before icing)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

peel of 1 orange

Bring all three to a simmer in a saucepan on the stove until the sugar dissolves.  Poke holes all over the cake with a skewer (or a dried piece of spaghetti) and drizzle the syrup on the cake. (You might not need all of the syrup. You don’t want it too wet.) Allow the syrup to soak in for half and hour before icing.

(Don’t use the syrup if you make cupcakes with this cake recipe. It will be a giant mess!)

Marmalade Buttercream Icing

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup marmalade

1/2 tsp salt (if using salted butter, omit this extra salt)

1 Tbps good vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste, which I love and buy at William Sonoma)

6-7 cups powdered sugar (enough to reach the consistency you desire)

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the marmalade, salt and vanilla. Beat well. It may look a little curdled at first but once you start adding the sugar it will smooth out.

Add the sugar a cup or two at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

This makes a lot of icing. It’s enough to ice a double batch of cake. Or if you have leftovers you can freeze them. Buttercream freezes beautifully. Just bring to room temp and beat a little before you want to use it.