Petite Orange Cakes with orange-cream cheese frosting

I usually stick to plain vanilla flavored cakes whenever I make cakes from scratch. But the event Sugar High Friday - Citrus made me experiment with another flavor and use my creativity too. I took the recipe for a plain sponge cake from a cookbook, used orange juice for the citrus flavor of the cake. Then I made a cream cheese frosting following my own idea and mixed in orange juice and zest to flavor it. Garnished with mandarin orange slices and drizzled with a little bit of melted chocolate I think these petite orange cakes qualify for two events, SHF # 43 -Citrus hosted by Tartlette and created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess and The Spring Tea Party hosted by The Skinny Gourmet.

Sponge cake:

I made a basic vanilla sponge cake. To add some orange flavor, I added a tablespoon of orange juice along with vanilla essence. I usually bake the cake in my 8" by 3" round cake pan, so that I can pour the batter for two individual rounds into the same pan. Once the cake was baked and cooled, I cut it into two equal layers.

[While I am writing this post, I realized that I actually halved the number of eggs needed in the recipe, but forgot to halve the quantity of cake flour and other ingredients. I should say it came out really well for such a screw-up!!!! The cake was soft, airy and fluffy. Until now I was thinking what could be the reason that it was not as moist as the cake mix cakes. Now I know!! :-) But this gives another tip too. You actually dont need 6 eggs to make 2 layers of sponge cake, if you beat the yolks and the whites really well. How's that for cutting the calories!! :-)]

For the flavored cream cheese:

Cream cheese - 4 oz
Orange juice - 5 tsp
Orange zest - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1 tbsp, melted
Whole milk - 1 1/2 - 2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Beat all of the above ingredients together until smooth and fluffy.

I did not want a very sweet frosting, so unlike the traditional cream cheese frostings, I just added sugar for its sake. A little bit of sweetness will also come from the orange juice. I should say that the frosting was very tasty with a subtle but distinct flavor of oranges from the orange juice and the orange zest.

Assembling the petite cakes:

Tint half of the cream cheese frosting a light orange color. This step is optional as it does not impart any additional flavor. It is entirely for a feast for your eyes.

Place the upper cut layer on the cake board.

Spread the tinted cream cheese frosting over the cake.

Place the second cake layer on top so that the bottom of the baked cake (the brown part) is actually now on the top.

Using your favourite cookie cutter/s, cut out petite cakes from the two layered cake.

Top each of the petite cake with a dollop of the white cream cheese mixture.

Place a segment of mandarin orange on top of the cream cheese mixture.

Drizzle a bit of melted chocolate over the cake.

Serve and enjoy!

Tip:

1. The picture shows the cake on a melted chocolate-milk puddle with mandarin orange slices and chocolate chips.