Place the rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 °F (162 °C) and line a 9”x13” pan with a piece of parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and orange extract at medium-high speed for about 2 minutes until it's thickened and a light gold color. Should your stand mixer not have a whisk attachment, then beat the mixture for 5 minutes using the paddle attachment.

Beat in the dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Use a silicon spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and mix briefly to incorporate.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk and orange zest over medium heat. You shouldn't let it boil. When you see small bubbles start to appear around the edge of the saucepan, it's ready. The temperature will be 180-185 °F (82-85 °C). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and oil until the butter has melted.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. It may look bubbly.

Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the edges of the cake are pulling away from the pan's sides.

Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool completely, which takes about 2 hours.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It's okay if it looks a little crumbly.

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until totally combined and then beat in the salt and vanilla.

Add 1/2 cup of frosting to one small mixing bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon of Dutch-process cocoa powder until combined.

Add 1/4 cup of white frosting to another bowl. Color it yellow. With McCormick Nature's Inspiration Food Colors, I added 1/16 teaspoon sunflower and stirred until combined. If it’s not very bright, add another 1/16 teaspoon.

To the 2 cups of frosting that are still in the bowl, color it green. With McCormick Nature's Inspiration Food Colors, I used 1/2 teaspoon of sky blue and 1/4 teaspoon of sunflower coloring. Beat in until combined.

Cut a big triangle by cutting starting from the middle of the shorter (9" side) to the bottom corners of the opposite shorter side. If this is confusing, see the photos.

You rearrange the cut-offs on a serving plate (or board/tray - it needs to be quite large to fit the cake properly!) rounded side up, into a triangle that’s the same exact size and shape as the large triangle you just cut.

Use 1 cup of the green frosting to spread over the top and sides of the cake that’s on the tray - but you don’t have to add frosting all the way to the very bottom because that’ll be cut away, except for the bottom middle section, which will form the tree trunk. Frost the middle section that will form the tree trunk with some brown frosting.

On the whole large triangle piece, in the bottom corner, use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out TWO stars. You don’t want to use one that’s too big because then a lot of cake would be wasted. It also shouldn’t be too small that the tree looks silly. Mine was about 1.5”. So cut out the stars at the very bottom of the cake in the corners. Place the whole triangle piece (the one from which you cut the stars) and place it, flat side up, on top of the frosted cut pieces already on the serving tray. Then use a knife to cut out the tree trunk on the bottom piece. Frost the tree trunk with brown frosting.

Cover the top and sides of the top layer of cake with the remaining green frosting.

Stack and frost the star with the yellow frosting. I recommend using a star tip to pipe them on, but you can do this however you like.

Pipe on the white frosting to form the Christmas tree light wire. Do NOT decorate with candy or sprinkles until just before serving! Whatever you use might not bleed into the frosting, but it might.

Without the candy, the cake will stay good for at least 3 days in the fridge. If you have leftovers, you can freeze them for up to 3 months.

If you want to make the cake in advance, it's best to bake the cake and cover until ready to use. You can also make the frosting a few days in advance (keep that refrigerated). And then on the day of serving, frost the cake. The covered unfrosted cake can sit at room temperature for up to 2 days.