Recipe: Orange Cake with Orange Curd and Thick Whipped Cream

Orange Cake with Orange Curd and Thick Whipped Cream
rec.food.recipes/rweaver/2002
Source: Cake from The Political Palate, Bloodroot Collective, Sanguinaria Publ, Orange curd from Joy of Cooking,

This is a very orange-y cake.

6 eggs, warmed to room temperature (or a bit warmer) and separated zest of 2 oranges
1 1/3 cup white flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp honey (either something light like clover, or orange blossom)
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate (good quality is important)

Butter three 9-inch cake pans and line with wax paper. (Do not butter the inside of the paper.) Preheat oven to 325F.
Whisk together flour and salt.
Beat egg yolks till thick and light. Add 1/2 cup honey, orange juice concentrate, and orange zest and mix well.
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar to soft peaks. Add 2 Tbsp honey and beat to stiff peaks.
Fold together yolk mix and flour mix, then fold in whites.
Pour into prepared pans, make a wide trough around the edge (run a couple fingers around the edge), and bake until cake starts to shrink from edges, about 25 minutes. Set pans on racks to cool 5 minutes, then turn out and remove wax paper.

My suggestion for a light filling/frosting would be orange curd for the filling and thick-whipped cream for the frosting.

Orange Curd

2 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
scant 1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup honey if you want to continue the no-sugar thing)
zest of 1 1/2 oranges
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate (good quality is important)
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk eggs, sugar, and zest together in a non-reactive sauce pan till light. Add orange juice concentrate and butter. Cook, whisking, over medium heat until the butter is melted. Then whisk constantly until thickened and *just* starts to simmer. Scrape out with a spatula; strain through a medium sieve. Let cool, cover, and refrigerate to thicken.

Thick-whipped cream:
Heavy cream whipped in the food processor thickens but incorporates very little air, so it's much denser--thick enough for frosting a cake, but still much lighter than a buttercream. I'd flavor 2 cups heavy cream with 2 Tbsp maple syrup. You could also zest the remaining half orange; heat the cream just to simmer and pour over the zest, chill overnight, and strain before whipping. Just be careful not to overbeat--in the food processor it just takes a few seconds too long for the cream to separate. (Or skip the separate filling and just use the whipped cream--but then I'd definitely flavor it with orange zest, maybe 1 orange's worth per cup of heavy cream.)