Martin Sorge cuts a slice of his egg-free, yellow cake with chocolate frosting on April 9 at his Chicago home. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) As a professional recipe developer focused on baking ...

Cracking open an egg to find a bright orange yolk instead of the expected pale yellow can be quite the surprise. But fear not ...

Now, I make it from scratch: a rich yellow butter cake with lots of egg yolks, a generous glug of vanilla and a secret dash of almond extract. My homemade version scratches that nostalgic itch.