Happy Birthday

I have been wanting to bake a cake. This shouldn't be such a big deal except I don't like to bake things unless they will be leaving my house. That way, we don't eat them. It seems funny to me that I do all this baking but hardly any of it is for my family. So little in fact, that when I tell Xander I am making something, he always asks "for who?" and when I tell him it's for us, he'll ask me over, and over again to make sure it's really for us.

Yesterday was my friends birthday. She lives thousands of miles away in TX. I told her I'd make a cake in honor of her birthday. Sounded like a good enough excuse to me. Coincidentally, a friend of mine sent me a link to someones beautiful blog and I felt inspired by it. Then at lunch I ate an orange and it was beautiful, and fragrant, and delicious... and I was inspired by it as well. I also have a bunch of new pans that I've been wanting to try out, homemade caramel, and ganache to use up as well. So... this cake served a great many purposes today.

Happy Birthday Marie, I hope it was a good one! And thanks for giving me an excuse to make this orange cake, with caramel filling coated in dark chocolate orange ganache... made in one of my new oval shaped pans.