How to Bake Half a Cake

Over the summer I finished another graduate course and realized I was half way done with my Master's degree. I figured that was cause for celebration, so I decided to bake "half a cake". I am totally stealing the idea from a Facebook friend who makes half cakes for her kids' half birthdays. 

My favorite kind of cake is orange cake. I combined a basic yellow cake recipe and an idea from the Cake Mix Doctor to come up with this recipe. It's super easy. Since I was only making "half a cake", I cut my usual recipe in half.

My 3 year old loves to juice the oranges. The best part of this recipe is that after you've mixed the dry ingredients, you can just dump in the rest. You don't have to cream the butter and sugar first.

 My mom's trick for removing cakes from the pan is to line the bottom with wax paper. Works like a charm.

I had enough batter to fill my cake pan and have an extra cupcake.

The wax paper makes sure the cake slides right out without sticking to the bottom.

While the cake was cooling, we mixed up the frosting. The frosting is made with butter, cream cheese, orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar. So, technically it's a fruit and ok to eat any leftover frosting. :)

 After the cake was cooled and I removed the wax paper, I cut the round in half. This is where I should have ignored my impatient child for a minute and taken the time to level the cake. They stack a lot more nicely that way.

 Frost the top of the first layer, stack the top, then frost the top and edges. Delicious!