Mocha Ripple Butter Cake with Orange Essence

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Do you watch Cupcake Wars?  If you're unfamiliar with the show, here's a brief synopsis.  Four cupcake bakers compete for $10,000 and the opportunity to present their creations at an event, which always seems to have some celebrities in attendance.  There are 3 judges, one of which changes according to the event.  The two that are always present, Candace something or other and Florian Bellanger, whose name I always remember because I like to say it, tend toward brutal honesty.  The other wildcard judge is usually a really nice person who, like me, I presume, always says how delicious the cupcake tastes.  In the first round, there's a taste challenge, and in round two, it's 50/50 appearance and taste. One by one the competitors are eliminated until the final two remain.  Each of them bakes 1,000 cupcakes and designs a display in keeping with the event.  After critiquing the display, the winner is chosen, and then, we, the viewer, gets a glimpse of the event. 
I'm seriously addicted to the show and utterly fascinated with the ability of the bakers to devise a flavor on demand.  They literally have just minutes to look at a table of ingredients, choose, and create a cupcake.  I have been known to muse about flavor combinations for days before deciding to move forward.  Like today's post, for instance.  I've always like the combination of orange and mocha, and I've thought about creating a cake which would contain both flavors for a long, long time.  Well, I woke up this morning and decided that today was the day.  Unfortunately, I had no oranges; well, too bad, I decided, and I remembered that I had a jar of orange marmalade in the pantry.  Instead of making the cake entirely chocolate, I decided to ripple the mocha flavor into the butter cake.  I was not displeased with the cake; it's incredibly moist and flavorful, but the orange is not coming through as strongly as I wanted; I'm going to make it again, but I'll be sure to have oranges on hand, and I'll add the zest to the batter in addition to the marmalade.

Linked to Make It With...Mondays

Mocha Ripple Butter Cake with Orange Essence Printable recipe
1 stick + 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup superfine sugar (process regular sugar in food processor for 2 minutes)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup orange marmalade
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon orange extract
1/4 cup milk, divided
2 tablespoons cold coffee
2 tablespoons cocoa

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 10-cup Bundt pan with non-stick spray.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, orange marmalade, vanilla and orange extracts.
Add eggs, one at a time.
Alternately add the flours and 2 tablespoons of milk, until batter is thick and well-mixed.
Remove 2 tablespoons of batter and place into a small bowl.
To the 2 tablespoons of batter add the cocoa, coffee, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk.
Swirl cocoa batter into large bowl of batter, being careful to leave streaks of the butter cake plain.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a tester inserted comes out clean.
Drizzle on your favorite chocolate glaze.
Enjoy!

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