Orange Rhum Cake by SWEET HIBISCUS

In the Bakers' Dozen Fair in Powerplant Mall, Makati, a rockstar pastry chef emerged two years ago -- Ange of Sweet Life. During our visit to the fair to sample this year's harvest of goodies, we chanced upon an old friend of my husband who was enthusiastically selling the now-famous Frozen Brazo de Mercedes of Sweet Life. The guy turns out to be the father of Ange! 

We were also quite surprised that Ange is two years younger than our daughter who is also into baking and who plans to go to the Culinary Institute of America in a couple of years to earn her associate degree in pastry arts. We were even more surprised that Ange, after being a celebrity of sorts in the pastry world, is bent on a degree not in culinary or pastry arts but in fashion and that the enterprising young lady is determined to make it in New York's world of high fashion and couture -- the reason behind Sweet LIfe's line of specialty Couture Cupcakes. 

If Ange became popular for the Frozen Brazo de Mercedes which we got addicted to two years ago, my daughter Nicole's signature dessert is her Orange Rhum Cake. We gave the rhum cakes as presents to our neighors and friends in the malls where we had our stores and it was a runaway hit last year - with rave reviews who were asking where we bought the cake! 

In the same manner that Ange's dad said that the frozen brazo's magic recipe was derived after downing several portions on a hundred different tries of the frozen brazo, Nicole's orange rhum cake also came about through trial-and-error short of giving our household members a case of diabetes before Christmas. 

But here it is, the Orange Rhum Cake that's good for sharing as Christmas is never complete without a traditional rhum cake to go with coffee or tea as an after-dinner treat or when you have friends and family over. SWEET HIBISCUS' Orange Butter Rhum Cake makes a Yuletide comeback! 

Spongy butter cake laced with hints of lite rhum, honey and orange and then topped with swirls of sweet vanilla frosting. Not too sweet though and best eaten with an appetite for all good things in life! MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!