Honeymoon Cake

So y'all know I have the honeymoon cookies (with Blue Moon, honey, and orange), so I wanted to do that same flavor profile in cake form. This is a 3-layer cake soaked in Blue Moon beer, sandwiched with orange curd, slathered in orange buttercream, and topped with stellar macarons! I will say, to make your life easier, do the curd and reduce the beer the night before. 

This recipe makes three 9-inch round cakes or about 36 cupcakes and about 24 macarons. 

For the Orange Curd:

*I did the usual curd recipe I do from Ina, but subbed out all the lemon for oranges. I think next time I will do at least some lemon as well- the orange curd by itself had no tang. Just all sweet. I think the lemon will boost the flavor some. 

3 oranges (again, when I make this next time, I will probably do 2 oranges and 1 lemon)

1 ½ c granulated sugar

¼ pound unsalted butter, room temp (that’s 1 stick)

4 extra-large eggs

½ c orange (and maybe lemon) juice

1/8 tsp salt

1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest of 3 oranges, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor. Add the sugar and pulse until zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

2. Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and orange mixture.

3. Add one egg at a time, and then add the orange juice and salt. Mix until combined.

4. Pour mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The curd will thicken at about 170F, or just below a simmer. For this recipe, I kept cooking it for about 10 more minutes because I wanted it to be thicker so that it would not squish out of the cake layers.

5. Remove from heat and run through a strainer to get any lumps or bigger pieces of zest out of it. Cool or refrigerate. I put it in mason jar and let it cool slightly before putting the lid on and putting it in the fridge. 

For the Macaron Shells:

1 part egg whites - 64 grams (2 egg whites for me)

1.5 part almond flour - 96 grams (64 from egg whites x 1.5)

0.8 part granulated sugar - 51 grams

1.5 part powdered sugar - 96 grams

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp cardamom * this is a little citrusy and a little warming and it's super nice

Zest of 1 large orange

Blue food coloring

Gold and/or silver luster dust

Star sprinkles

1. In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, start mixing egg whites. Don't mix them on too high of a speed (no higher than 6 on a kitchenaid). While this starts out, move to the second step.

2. Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and cardamom in a bowl. *I just put my bowl on my food scale and poured through my sifter until the right weight because I'm lazy.* Put aside until the egg whites are finished.

3. After the egg whites have started to foam up, add cream of tartar. *this is just to help stabilize the merengue, so you can leave it out if you want.

4. Start adding in the granulated sugar to the foamy egg whites a bit at a time. Let mixer keep whipping until you get to stiff peaks, like you see in the picture.

5. Once you have stiff peaks, gently fold in the orange zest.

6. Pour in about half of your dry ingredients into the egg whites. You'd think you have to be gentle here because it's egg whites and you don't want to lose all that air. Nah. You can mix the shit of out of this; it's okay.

7. Pour the second half of dry ingredients in and keep mixing. Here I was a bit more gentle. Add the blue food coloring at this point too and incorporate. You want to keep mixing until it looks glossy and it ribbons back on itself. 

8. Line baking sheet with silicon mat or parchment paper and pipe the macarons into small circles. 

9. Whack the cookie sheet on the counter at least 3 times to get all the air bubbles out. *Again, you can whack them on the counter pretty hard.

10. Decorate with luster dust and star sprinkles.

11. Allow to sit at room temperature until they look matte and when you try to gently touch them with your finger, they don't stick. They form a skin on top. This can take between 20 minutes to an hour. In more humid months, this will take longer, but it's one of the most important steps! 

12. While you're waiting, preheat oven to 350F.

13. BEFORE you put them in the oven, drop to 325F. I would only bake one sheet at a time. I tried double once. It doesn't work out well. Anyway, bake for 12 - 14 minutes, but check at 10 minutes. If you can lightly touch it and the macaron doesn't move on it's base, it should be done.

14. Allow to cool completely before taking off parchment and filling. 

For the Cake:

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 c unsalted butter (1 stick), room temp

2 c granulated sugar

3 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 c all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c cake flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 c buttermilk

1/2 c Blue Moon reduction *you will reduce 12 oz and use part of it here, and part of it to soak the cake.

Zest of an orange

1. Put Blue Moon into a small saucepan and allow to simmer and reduce to about half. Allow to cool before using (again this is why I would suggest reducing this the night before).

2. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare cake pans with goop.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together oil, butter, and sugar. Add in the yolks of the three eggs- keep the whites separate. Add in vanilla extract.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together egg whites until at stiff peaks. Set aside.

5. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

6. Pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture and mix to combine.

7. Pour the buttermilk into sugar mixture and combine.

8. Pour another 1/3 of dry.

9. Pour the half cup of Blue Moon reduction.

10. Pour in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients.

11. Slowly fold in the egg whites that were whipped up earlier and the zest. *This ensures that the batter will be light and fluffy.

For the Buttercream:

*You will use this to decorate the cake and to fill the macarons. 

5 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

6(ish) c powdered sugar

2 tbsp honey

Pinch of salt

Zest and juice of 1 orange

Splash of vanilla extract 

1. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter.

2. Slowly add powdered sugar one cup at a time, and mix to combine.

3. Add salt, vanilla, orange juice and zest. 

4. Mix to incorporate and allow to continue mixing for a minute or two to fluff. 

5. Take about 1/3 of the buttercream into a separate bowl and dye with blue food coloring. 

Assembly:

1. Take a dollop of buttercream and put on serving board or plate. 

2. Put the first cake layer down. With a pastry brush, soak the cake with some of the remaining Blue Moon reduction (you will do this with each layer). 

3. Put blue buttercream and white buttercream into two pastry bags and cut the end off of each. Take the white buttercream and create a dam on the top of the cake layer. 

4. Spoon in about half of the orange curd to cover the layer. 

5. Repeat with second layer, more soak, dam, and curd. 

6. Top with final layer and soak. 

7. With pastry bag, start at the bottom with blue buttercream and run it up about half of the cake. 

8. Do the same with the white buttercream up to the top (and covering the top) of the cake. 

9. Take a bench scraper or an offset spatula and smooth out the buttercream- allowing the colors to mix gently in the middle. 

10. Fill macarons with buttercream as well and decorate the cake with macarons. I didn't fill some of them and just used the shells as well. I also did another smattering of luster dust on the cake.