Orange-Vanilla Cake

Ingredients

Makes: 12 servings

• Baking spray

• 1 orange

• 1 vanilla bean

• 1 box butter-recipe yellow cake mix

• 3⁄4 cup orange marmalade, divided

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

• 3 eggs

• 1 container (12 ounces) whipped buttercream frosting

• 1⁄2 teaspoon orange extract

• Pinch of kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch tube cake pan with baking spray.

With a rasp-style citrus zester, finely grate orange to get 1 tablespoon zest. (If desired, use a French-style zester to pull off remaining zest in long, fine shreds to use for garnish.) Squeeze juice from orange. Add enough water to orange juice to make 1 1⁄4 cups liquid. Using a sharp knife, slit vanilla bean lengthwise and use tip of knife to scrape seeds from inside of vanilla bean.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on low speed, combine cake mix, water-orange juice mixture, 1/4 cup of the marmalade, butter, eggs, and half of the vanilla seeds and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack.

In a medium bowl, stir together frosting, grated orange zest, orange extract, salt, and remaining vanilla seeds. Cover and set aside.

Turn cooled cake over on a wire rack and gently lift pan to remove cake. Cut cake in half horizontally and place bot- tom half on a serving plate. Spread with the remaining 1⁄2 cup marmalade and place the remaining cake on top. Frost cake with buttercream icing. Garnish with orange zest shreds if desired.