White Chocolate Grand Marnier Cake

First made for Chris' birthday, 29-Jan-2011, inspiration provided by Hunter1

For the story behind this cake adventure, check out It's all about flavour ... Yum!

White Chocolate Cake

Beat until fluffy
	1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
	1 c sugar
Beat in
	2 eggs
	1 tsp vanilla
Stir until blended
	1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
	2 tsp baking powder
	1/2 c grated white chocolate

Bake at 350 F for approximately 45 minutes.  The top should be lightly golden and pick inserted in the centre should come out clean.  The bake time is approximate.  For the cake pictured in the "It's all about flavour" post, we made a double batch, filled 6 cupcakes and baked the rest of the batter in a 9 x 3 inch round pan.

Orange Mango Grand Marnier Filling

Combine in a saucepan
	2 1/2 c mandarin orange segments (3 small tins, packed in juice, drain and reserve juice)
	1/2 c frozen mango, medium diced
	3/4 c sugar
	3 tbsp cornstarch
	2 tbsp reserved juice
	1 tbsp Grand Marnier

Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Mixture will thicken.  Set aside to cool.

Grand Marnier Buttercream

Cream
	1/2 c shortening
	1/2 c margarine
	1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Gradually add	4 c icing sugar
	2 tbsp milk
	1 tbsp Grand Marnier

Beat until fluffy.

To assemble cake:

Once cooled, slice cake in half and scoop out a thin layer from the centre of the top and bottom of the cake to allow extra filling without it spilling out.  For the cupcakes, I cut in to them like I was coring a tomato and then scooped out a bit of the bottom of the cupcake to give space for filling.

Add filling and replace the cake top.

Ice the cake with the Grand Marnier Buttercream.  If you want to ensure a clean circle of filling on top of the cake, you should probably pipe an outside ring.  I didn’t and there was a small issue with the filling running down the side of the frosting.

Distribute a thin layer of the filling in the centre of the frosted cake.  Sprinkle more grated white chocolate around the outside edge.  For the cupcakes, we sprinkled grated white chocolate on the icing and then added a tiny dollop of the filling to tie things all together.