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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Orange Cake with Fruit Tingles Icing

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Updated note: For those of you who saw my Fizzy Candy Cake printed in Woman's World Magazine, you might notice that they changed my recipe to use Pop Rocks in the icing. If they had asked my opinion I wouldn't have recommended that, as it is meant to be a fizzy sherbert icing, not a popping candy icing. The recipe below includes suggestions for more suitable candies that are similar to Fruit Tingles, like Bottle Caps, SweeTarts or Smarties.
My fiancé A loves any food that is super sour. He sucks on lemons. This must be part of the whole opposite attracts thing, since I'm about as happy to suck on lemons as he is to eat a scone. He's very picky about his sweets, but one of his favourite lollies are Fruit Tingles. I'm not sure if anyone outside of Australia has had these, but they are these tart, pastel-coloured tablet candies, which have fizzy sherbet powder in them, hence the tingly part of Fruit Tingles. These are one of the many sweets that we have to bring along with us on any car or plane trip, in fact I recently pulled out one of my hand-luggage bags and found a fruit tingle rolling around the bottom of the bag. Also A insists that only the multi-coloured fruit tingle in the pack (there's usually only one in each pack) is THE fruit tingle, and none of the other colours should be called fruit tingles. But whatever, I crushed up all the different colours to make this Fruit Tingles Icing, isn't it pretty??? It is. It's pretty, and very tingly. That might sound a bit wrong but it tastes so right heehee...
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I've been having a bit of a drought in baking inspiration recently. I'd been sort of toying with the idea of doing an orange sherbet cake but I couldn't quite figure out how to make it my own. Then Regex Man suggested that I make something with Fruit Tingles, remembering the Fruit Tingles Milkshake he once had Bells Milk Bar. It had to be done! I immediately decided to do a layered orange cake with a butter icing that had crushed up fruit tingles mixed into it. A bit of research also happened to find me these amazing fruit tingle macarons on Flickr which I think is just as awesome an idea. But I really wanted to slather an entire cake with loads of this fruit tingle icing. Don't worry if you can't get Fruit Tingles where you live, any fizzy hard candies will do. Suze tells me that the US equivalent is Bottle Caps or Smarties (not the chocolate covered candy with the same name) or SweeTarts, but since I haven't had these myself I can't say for sure that they're the same or similar enough. (Or Barratt's Refreshers for those in the UK?)
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Since I know that icing a layered cake is always going to be messy and will take me ages to get it nice and neat, I was glad to have a super easy cake recipe that I could whip up in a few minutes. Stephanie Alexander's orange tea cake has got to be one of the easiest, yummiest cake recipes I've ever used. It's the same recipe that I ended up adapting to use for my foolproof cupcake recipe. You literally throw the ingredients into the food processor, whizz it up and bake it. I adapted it in this recipe so it could be baked as three separate cake layers, but you could always bake it in one deep cake tin and slice it up. I also reduced the amount of sugar since it was going to be covered in heaps of icing. I used salted butter in the icing which stops it from being so sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. But I wouldn't make this cake if you're scared of sugar or butter. There's a LOT of sugar and butter in the icing. Though if you're really scared of butter and/or sugar you probably shouldn't be reading my blog most of the time.
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The icing is most definitely the star of this cake. I've been making a lot of awesome simple butter icing recipes recently, they're the ones that I love to eat on cakes and they're the easiest to get right. The little nubbins of Fruit Tingle bits give this icing that beautiful speckled pastel coloured look, and add the sour fizzy sherbet flavour that A is so fond of. It goes really well with the orange cake, and you could easily adapt this recipe into a cupcake recipe too. I am pretty sure this recipe would be a winner at a birthday party, especially if the kids (or adults) love Fruit Tingles as much as A does.
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In other random news, I was lucky enough to be asked by SBS Food to be one of their Featured Foodies on their website this month. They've done great features on some of my favourite food bloggers in the past and you can see mine here.
And OH MY GOD there's even a (very old) photo of me. But at least I'm not posing with Tupperware boobies or anything, which has happened on another blog before and shall not be mentioned again. Anyway go check it out!
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Fruit Tingles Cake (Orange Cake with Fizzy Sherbet Icing)
(makes one 3-layered 20cm round cake, cake recipe adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion)
For the cake:
1 1/2 large oranges
3 eggs
165g (about 1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar (superfine white sugar)
300g (approx 2 cups) self-raising flour

For the icing:
350g butter (I like to use salted butter for this)
750g (about 6 cups) icing sugar, sifted
4 rolls (about 140g) Fruit tingles, or any other fizzy tablet candies like Bottle Caps or Smarties (not the chocolate covered candy with the same name), SweeTarts or Barratt's Refreshers, plus an extra roll to decorate on top if you wish

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) (if fan-forced use 180°C (350°F)) and grease, line the base and dust with flour three 20cm round baking tins. If you're like me and only own one tin, you can re-use the tin and bake three cakes, one after the other. Zest and juice orange (I ended up with about 1/2 cup of juice). Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blend for 2 minutes. If you have extra time and are worried about over-mixing the flour like me, blend the orange juice and zest, butter, sugar and eggs together first for one minute, then add the flour and blend for another minute. If you don't have a food processor, cream butter and sugar together using an electric beater until light and smooth. Add eggs at a time and beat in well. Add the juice, zest and flour and quickly mix until combined, avoid overbeating the flour. Split the batter into three equal portions (I used a scale to measure it exactly), and pour into prepared tin(s) and smooth with a spatula. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then carefully remove and cool cake on wire rack completely. (Cakes can be made a day ahead and wrapped in cling film in the fridge overnight before icing)
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When all 3 cakes are completely cool, start preparing the icing by removing the salted butter from the fridge 30 mins before starting. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy with an electric mixer on high. Gradually add icing sugar with the mixer on medium, then when it is combined beat on high until light and fluffy. You may need to adjust the amount of icing sugar to obtain the right consistency of icing, you want it to be smooth but not holding its shape, not runny. Crush fruit tingles in a food processor or by smashing it up in a zip lock bag and beat crushed lollies into the icing until even. Sandwich the three cakes with an even layer of icing between them, crumb coat cake and then chill for about half an hour, then cover then cover the entire cake in another layer of icing, smoothing out with a spatula or palette knife. Top cake with extra fruit tingles and chill for about 20 mins to set the icing. Serve at room temperature, can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.
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81 comments:

  1. This is such an awesome idea. I would have killed to have a birthday cake like this as a child, it's so pretty and colourful. And tinggggggly.

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  2. OMG I LOVE Fruit tingles! They are my favourite lolly of all time!

    I am gonna have to make this cake ASAP! Thanks so much for posting the recipe.

    and congrats on getting featured on the SBS page! *round of applause*

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  3. Your husband is so right. I commandeer the multi coloured fruit tingle out of every pack. Love them.

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  4. TOO CUTE. WAAAAAY TOO CUTE! You're such a genius, Steph and congrats on the SBS feature! Very well deserved =)

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  5. I love how the icing looks so much like Fruit Tingles. It must taste amazing, too.

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  6. steph, your baking always inspires me. everytime i open your blog, I get excited to see what comes up and you did it again! I dont like fruit tingles, because I dont like soury stuff, but omg how good do these look? blends in perfectly with the weather we have here in melbourne! spring time!

    Iva

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  7. What a pretty cake! That icing sounds amazing. Would love to try the fizziness of it.

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  8. Holy cow Steph you are an evil genius. And your icing is so damn PERFECT. All that prettiness makes me weep...

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  9. Steph it's insanely beautiful. You are super creative. Fruit Tingles are the best, especially the pink ones. Your cake is so perfect... You can tell it was baked with Love awwwwwww..

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  10. i love fruit tingles and quite like sucking on lemons too!
    so this cake looks incredible to me, would loooooove a slice please ;)

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  11. omg I LOVE fruit tingles!! Fruit tingle icing is such an awesome idea and you've totally reminded me how long it's been since I've eaten a fruit tingle. I get so excited when I get the multi-coloured one in the pack heh

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  12. This sounds amazing but I'm mostly impressed with the pictures! GORGEOUS!

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  13. I love fruit tingles. This cake is awfully pretty.

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  14. That's so beautiful- I love the different colors in the frosting due to the crushed up candies. I wonder if those candies are similar to the 'Smarties' we have in the US?

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  15. Annie - Ooh yes, I think you might be right! I've updated the post, thanks for the tip!

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  16. Oh what a fantastic idea! I remember sweets like these here in England from way back in my childhood but they seem to have disappeared! But having that sherbet in the icing sounds like a majorly awesome idea and has made me somewhat nostalgic!

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  17. This looks wonderful! In Ireland the equivalent sweeties would be Refreshers :)

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  18. What stunning photos!! Looks really tasty ^_^ Mmm

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  19. Such a cute cake. It looks beautiful and I love the candy creativity. When I first saw the picture, I thought the cake was topped with Fruit Loops (the cereal!)

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  20. Catherine - Thanks for the tip, will add it to the post :)

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  21. Congratulations steph!! your cakes look delicious and your blog is always fun to read! :)

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  22. Oh yum! This sounds delicious! How excited about your feature, but I have to admit Tupperware Boobies sounds kind of hilarious! Hope you had a great weekend!

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  23. beautiful frosting! love all your photos from this recipe and your pretty cake plate! :)

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  24. This is simply adorable. Love the idea. I guess on this side of the globe Sweetarts could be used instead of Fruit Tingles.

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  25. Oh WOW!!! Your photos are amazing! I agree with Lora, when I saw these I thought they were sweetarts, yum! OMG I can't believe how beautiful your pics are, I keep looking at them ;)

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  26. can't believe I never had fruit tingles before! Definitely amending that the moment I step into Sydney! and loved how bright and cheery the cake looked! I also liked the interesting write up about you on SBS - you look so very young there!

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  27. admittedly i was one of the weird kids at school who wasn't into fruit tingles but i'd still be totally up for a cake like this. i don't understand how you manage to ice your cakes so, so perfectly. your neat edges are impeccable!

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  28. That cakes looks amazing! I love the idea of Fruit Tingles in the icing and am constantly amazed by how you are always able to get your icing so smooth and perfect. You are inspiring!

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  29. Wow!! Absolutely beautiful, and very visually stunning! Will you attempt the macaron versions? Can you imagine the same multi colour speckles on a macaron shell?! AWESOME!

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  30. I love how you always come up with such innovative ideas for cakes and this is no exception. It's SO beautifully decoated, and can imagine the tingliness of the icing is absolutely amazing :-)

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  31. I must say ... that is so creative!!!

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  32. I'm having a hard time even reading the post because I'm so enthralled by your pictures. Amazing!!!!!

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  33. God, I used to love Fruit Tingles when I was little! I am crazy tempted to try making this cake sometime, just because it looks so amazing.

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  34. This is is the cake of the year for me!! I love the Fruit Tingles and the colours and styling look fab (as always). Congrats on the SBS write up too! You're fab missy :D

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  35. Gorgeous cake and beautiful blog!

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  36. This cake looks delicious and perfect. Love the photos

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  37. How pretty is this! And, um, Tupperware boobies...??

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  38. omg so creative! fruit tingles cake...just wow. grats on being feature foodie!

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  39. Yummo!!!

    Read you sbs foodies feature and i agree about the bit about the sweet belem tarts.
    MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
    Sorry I have to go and cry about how delicious everything is.

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  40. What a fantastic cake!!!! Seeing Fruit Tingles really takes me back in time. They were my favourite lollies when I was little. This would be such a fun idea for a birthday cake. I'm filing the one away! :D

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  41. This looks amazing, cannot wait to try it. Your photography is beautiful, talk about food porn. I have added you to my Google Reader account, how have I only just discovered your blog now?! Love.

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  42. Mm, that looks yummy and the pictures are amazing. How do you think the orange cake would pair with chocolate frosting?

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    1. Chocolate and orange is delicious together! At least l think so :)

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  43. Karla - Chocolate and orange is always a winning combination in my books!

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  44. This cake looks amazing. Very clever idea. Your styling and photography are very beautiful.

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  45. Such a pretty cake! I think I could do the same with our "Love Hearts" in the UK.

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  46. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my GOSH!!! I can't believe I've never thought to make fruit tingle icing!! Such a great idea!! I love love love fruit tingles sooooooooooooo much! Oh oh oh this is all so exciting hahaha!
    P.S. Your photography is just to die for! Love!

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  47. This is such a gorgeous looking cake! How did you get the edge of the icing in such a sharp line?

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  48. Julia @ Boredom Abounds - An offset spatula does the trick, especially if you clean it off and run it under warm water regularly as you smooth out the icing :)

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  49. Your cake and photography is stunning.

    My friend adored my recreation of your cake (though wasn't quite as pretty as yours!).

    Best thing ever was watching an english guy trying a fruit tingle for the first time in his life.... he thought we were trying to poison him and nearly spat it out!

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  50. Yum, fruit tingles, what an inspired idea. Love your blog and all the amazing photos :-)

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  51. Bottle Caps would be the closest thing in shape and size.

    In Particular Fizzy Bottle Caps, a discontinued candy that I used to love. It is probably the closest to fruit tingles I have tried in the states. The difference though is that they are in soda flavors: like cola, root beer, lemon-lime, orange, etc.

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  52. I just decided on my birthday cake for next month :D thanks, now to find the fruit tingles

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  53. So glad I found this on pinterest. Somehow I missed seeing this one before, and I've been looking for a cool yummy birthday cake for my 6 & 3 year olds joint birthday party. This is it! Can't wait to make it :D

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  54. Back when I saw this in October I knew I was going to make this for my birthday and it was worth the wait!
    Soooo yummy! Thanks Steph.

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  55. Tried this over the weekend! Thanks for a fantastic recipe!! :) Yummmmmmyyyyy

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  56. Made this for the kids at Church for morning tea this morning, they loved it!.....so did the adults :). It was inhaled within minutes, thanks for the recipe, its delicious.

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  57. I have made this 3 times so far - it is my new favourite! I've even made it into cupcakes for a bake sale.

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  58. I made this cake last week for our annual office "Bake Off" and it won "Best Cake"! It was practically inhaled and the judges went crazy over it! You have such a beautiful site and such beautiful recipes. Are you going to publish?

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    1. Yayyy congrats! So glad it went down so well. Oh I WISH I was publishing, that's the dream!

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  59. I've been waiting to make this for ages, and finally have an excuse for work tomorrow. Have you made that orange cake recipe as a cupcake? Does it work as well or should I modify it for a purpose-written cupcake recipe? So excited...

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    1. Ace! Thank you! My workplace will sing your praises tomorrow... they already think you're ace after the cheesecake Easter Eggs. ;)

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  60. omg!!! i love fruit tingles!!! i will definatly have make this cake!!! yum!

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  61. i tried the cake total fail with the icing but still ok, i need icing classes lol. oh but i got 4 multi coloured fruit tingles in one roll!

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  62. I made this tonight for hubby's birthday. The adults loved it, but most of the kids weren't so keen on the fizz. The look on my 5 year old's face when he tried his first fruit tingle was hilarious! But he must've liked it, because he went back for more. :)

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  63. I made the cake on October 14! Mine is a little more "special" looking, shall we say... but well received. :)

    http://serendipityandkate.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/tingle-cake.html

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  64. Just found your website and soooo happy I did!!!! I just tried the frosting out with a plain sponge and it's fab!!!!! I'm going to do it for a 'Bake Off' my friend is hlding on sunday. Thanks again!!!! xxxxxxx

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  65. My five year old wanted this as her birthday cake.
    She spotted this cake on Google when we were searching for cake ideas.

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  66. I'm baking this tomorrow for a little girls' 1st birthday!

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    1. I found the icing really difficult to frost. It wasn't much of a spreadable consistency, so it didn't turn out as smooth as I would've liked. Perhaps 6 cups of sugar was too much. It still looks pretty though. :) Wish I could try a slice before the party tomorrow!

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    2. Hi Jess,

      It sounds like you may have added too much icing sugar. You're more than welcome to use your best judgment when it comes to getting the right consistency of icing to ensure it is spreadable. Next time gradually add the icing sugar until you reach your desired consistency, or add more butter or a tbsp of milk to loosen the mixture.

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  67. This has become one of my most favourite cakes! When I made the cake with the candy buttercream everyone was blown away. This frosting is a great idea for special occasions.
    But the orange cake itself is so beautiful and an easy no-fail recipe. It is easy to cut and nice to handle and thus perfect for cake-arty cakes. At least a handful of times now, I made it with mandarine and whipped cream filling and dark chocolate ganache drizzle/cover as a fresh and not-so-heavy summer cake. It has literally become one of my most baked recipes of this year. Thanks for this great recipe!

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  68. Thank you so much for this incredible recipe! I replaced the orange with 12 passion fruit, strained to give their juice with just a couple of spoonfuls of pulp put back in. The cake recipe is beautiful and so easy to make and it matched perfectly with the fruit tingles in the icing!
    I made this to celebrate my birthday this weekend and every single slice was gobbled up, I even had a random at the pub we were celebrating at come and ask for a slice and share it with her friends! This may have to become my new annual birthday cake from now on :)

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  69. do you crumb coat this?

    thanks:)

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    1. Yes you do, sorry I forgot to mention that! Will update the recipe now xx

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  70. Hello I made this cake and it was delish! My sister wants one for her birthday.

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