I’d almost forgotten about this orange cake recipe, which was a specialty of my Aunt Fran years ago. She nearly always made the same meal when our family of 13 descended upon her house for dinner: ham, potato salad, fruit salad, storebought rolls, and this cake for dessert.

Lately, I’ve been rummaging through my ancient recipe box for sweets to bake, and I unearthed this one last night. I probably shouldn’t even tell you what time I started baking this, but after catching up on Grey’s Anatomy, I was in the mood to relax in the kitchen around midnight. This is a cake that you’ll make over and over, it’s that good. And sooo easy.

Contact me at rosemaryeblack@gmail.com.

Orange Cake
1 yellow cake mix
1 small package orange Jello
¾ cup water
4 eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil (corn or canola)
½ cup orange juice
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 by 13-inch pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cake mix and Jello. Add the water, eggs and oil. Beat for 3 minutes with an electric mixer set on medium speed.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake the cake until done, about 35 to 40 minutes.

While the cake is still warm, prick holes all over the top with a fork. In small bowl, combine juice and confectioners’ sugar. Pour over the cake, letting it soak into all the holes.

For some reason, driving back from Target last night with my 17-year-old daughter in the car, the radio blasting, I became very nostalgic. Maddie’s not headed off to college till the end of the summer, leaving me with just the 6-year-old as the only fulltime child at home, so I’m not sure why separation pangs came on so strong last night.

 Music has something to do with it. I’ve soaked up so much knowledge of her music that I can actually tell one song from another. “Is this Akon?” I’ll ask. She’ll nod, so fixated on belting out the lyrics to her audience of one (me) that she keeps her eyes fastened on the road ahead. The 6-year-old, also a frequent passenger in the car, and we both know the lyrics to everything by Rihanna, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas.

I used to automatically switch off the car radio while driving by myself, just because I love the sounds of silence (a rare commodity in my house.) But in recent years,  since Maddie became a tween and started blasting the radio in the car, I’ve actually come to like some of the music and voluntarily listen to it when I’m solo behind the wheel. Not that I would ever admit to this.

Anyway, the twinges of missing my soon to be high school graduate didn’t last all that long, and were in fact dissipated by the time we got home. One look around her room – littered with enough junk to open a second hand store – was enough to make me turn around and head downstairs to make the chocolate truffles I hadn’t ever made on Valentine’s Day. They happen to be a favorite of a certain 17-year-old chocoholic. 

Since one of my kids has celiac disease, we often have gluten free birthday cakes these days. Usually, we make this particular flourless chocolate cake that is very good, but so rich that you actually feel a little bit sick at the end of a slice. Kind of how you feel if you polish off a basket of movie theater “buttered” popcorn, or a Cinnabon. The cake is basically all butter, chocolate, eggs and sugar, so it’s a little bit like cutting into a concentrated, 20-pound chocolate bar.

So last weekend, I decided to look a little farther afield and come up with something lighter. This cake – and I highly suggest that you make it this weekend, because it’s that good – is lightened with beaten egg whites and it’s got ground up nuts, too. Somehow the whole cake just seems so light, yet satisfyingly chocolatey.
I packed the cakefor a trip down to the apartment of one of my daughters’ boyfriends last weekend, and rather than put on whipped cream, frosted it with chocolate buttercream.

It turned out to be the kind of cake that, even after everyone had a piece, people kept slicing off extra slivers until it was nearly demolished.

Just one piece of advice from one baker to another: use absolutely the best possible chocolate in this cake. You will not be sorry!

To contact me, email rosemaryeblack@gmail.com.

Gluten Free Chocolate Birthday Cake
1 ¼ cups walnuts
9 ounces milk and dark chocolate (mix and match!), chopped
2 tablespoons half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sugar
6 eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan. Line with parchment and butter the parchment.

Grind the nuts in the food processor.

After picking up a few essentials at the supermarket on Saturday night (is beer an essential? Maybe on Superbowl weekend), I set out to make a tuna noodle casserole from scratch to take when I visited my father the following day. No canned cream of mushroom yuck for me! I had all the makings of a white sauce spread out on the counter before me, fresh mushrooms sizzling in a skillet, and a large pot of water on the stove, about to boil.

But then my plans disintegrated. I couldn’t find the canned tuna I’d bought a week earlier. After going through the cupboards for about 15 minutes, unearthing relics I hadn't even known were in there, I realized the cans were mysteriously gone. Then I remembered that my college daughter had visited the week before, and gone back to school with a fully packed car.

I called and asked if she had taken the canned tuna, to which she replied, “Oh yes, and I took canned beans, too.”

Feel free to take anything you want, I assured her, but please, just tell me what you took so I can buy more. By then, the store was closed and I couldn’t get out and buy the tuna. So I’ll be making the casserole tonight, and here is the recipe.

If you want to get in touch, email me at rosemaryeblack@gmail.com.

Tuna Noodle Casserole
Serves 6
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups egg noodles
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 ½ cups whole milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 7-ounce can tuna, flaked
¾ cup frozen peas, thawed
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 1 ½-quart baking dish with cooking spray.

To sauté mushrooms, cook the sliced mushrooms in the olive oil for 5 minutes, stirring. Set aside.