With chili and vinaigrette sauce, these chicken livers are a fiery but delicious entrée. It is a fantastic entrée and the secret ingredient is brandy. Watch how your visitors sop up the gravy with the bread as you serve it with toasted bread or fresh bread rolls!
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 molded cake |
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 ⅓ cups milk at room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon extract
- 1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon orange extract
- 1 ⅛ cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- ½ cup butter at room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place a rack into the lower third of oven.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Grease and flour a cake mold pan (such as a bunny cake or train cake mold) using vegetable shortening.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Mix 1 1/3 cup milk, lemon extract, 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, and orange extract in a separate bowl.
- Beat unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until butter is creamy and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in white sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 more minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating each egg in thoroughly before adding the next.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture in several additions, alternating with milk mixture; begin and end with flour mixture. Do not overbeat. Scrape bowl occasionally.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Place cake in pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes before inverting pan to remove cake. Allow cake to completely cool on wire rack, 3 to 4 hours.
- Beat vegetable shortening, 1/2 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract in a bowl until frosting is smooth and creamy.
- Pack the frosting into a heavy resealable plastic bag; force the frosting into one corner of the bag. Clip a small corner off the plastic bag, seal the bag, and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cake in desired pattern.
- For fondant style icing, bake cake in a round cake pan slightly smaller than a springform pan. Fit fondant inside of springform pan. You can put a layer of wax paper on the inside round portion. Place cooled cake into springform pan inside frosting and put in freezer. Take out of freezer and use a hair dryer to melt the icing onto the cake. It may start to leak out – this is okay, I think. Keep drying and then take springform pan off. You should have a smooth layer of icing.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 894 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 121 g |
| Cholesterol | 157 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 23 g |
| Sodium | 488 mg |
| Sugars | 91 g |
| Fat | 43 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I have probably made this recipe 5-6 times, as cupcakes, layer cake, and shaped cake, and it has turned out beautifully every time. It has become my go-to recipe for white cake, I love the slight citrus flavor and it is perfectly light and moist. I always follow the recipe exactly (aside from varying the baking time based on which pan I use), and wouldn’t change a thing. Thanks for sharing!
This is my go-to cake for birthdays, first day of school, or any other special family event. I’m not sure why some have called it a pound cake, as it always turns out light and fluffy for me–nothing like the texture of a pound cake. I have switched up the extracts, always with delicious results (as written, it is subtly citrusy–a light, fresh flavor). My family’s favorite cake recipe!
I like this one
I made this cake exactly as described, except that I cooked it in a six inch-high, six-inch round cake pan and, because I had extra batter, eight cupcakes. The cake didn’t bake all the way through, even though it was overdone on top, and after I took it out, it collapsed. I’ve used this cake pan with numerous other recipes and never had an issue, but it may be important to use a shallow pan with this recipe. The cupcakes came out fine, but I didn’t like the texture, which was weirdly grainy, which is why it got three stars.
Fluffy but moist and the flavor is simply incredible!
Excellent cake for cutting and designing into shapes, and the flavor is wonderful!!! Baked just as written, thank you so much!!!
This is a really good pound cake. The citrus flavors were very subtle. I may add a tad more extracts next time or even some orange or lemon zest to make it more flavorful. I used a lamb mold and there was extra cake batter after I filled the mold to the top. So I just found a small ramekin and made the extra in that. Make sure to leave the cake cool in the mold for the 15 mins that the recipe calls for; if you unmold while its too hot, your cake will fall apart. Also I froze the cake after standing it up on my platter prior to frosting it. I also had to put in a couple of long skews to hold the head a bit. I was extra careful this year because last year my lamb was in crumbs (I used a box cake mix – don’t’ ever do that!;-)), so I may have overreacted. All in all, this will likely be my cake mold recipe from now on.
I agree with another reviewer. Don’t pass this up because of the name. I made cupcakes for Easter out of this recipe. They are delicious! I did have to double the frosting recipe for the recipe since I piped it on.
I hope this cake isn’t being passed by because of its title. The submitter calls it a bunny cake but it shouldn’t be limited to just the shape of a bunny! But with only one review I’ll bet this is what’s happening to this excellent and obviously overlooked recipe. Have no misgivings about making this basic yellow layer cake. It’s merely a slight variation on the classic “One-Two-Three-Four Cake. The lemon and orange extracts were just the right amount for a delicate flavor, not masking the beautiful, butter cake taste of this at all. That said, any flavor extract would work – or stick with just the vanilla! I did make one small but important change – as I frequently do with butter cakes as they have a tendency to be dry, I substituted vegetable oil for the 1/8 cup (2 T.) butter called for in this recipe. I baked this as cupcakes, about 20-22 minutes. I tasted one before it was frosted and it was blue-ribbon good. It has a beautiful, moist and tender crumb, neither too dense nor two fluffy. A cake that stands on its own without being buried in frosting is a real winner in my book. As for the frosting, I knew I’d love it when I saw its ratio of fat to powdered sugar and its mix of both butter and shortening, offering the best qualities of both. Make sure you use hi-ratio shortening and pure 10x cane sugar and you will have the smoothest, creamiest buttercream you could hope for. Note: this recipe should make a 13×9″ sheet cake, 9” layer cake or 24 cupcakes.
First time making this cake. Used 1/2 Splenda to make it more Diabetic friendly. It was fantastic! Those that can use all sugar will find it even better than fantastic.