Orange Cake Recipe

This orange cake is another one of my favorite recipes. It is adapted from my butter pound cake recipe and has a refreshingly rich, citrus flavor from fresh orange juice and grated orange rind.  

This orange cake is another one of my favorite recipes. I love this cake more than my butter pound cake simply because of its rich citrus flavor. 

This is one of my calculated cake recipes collections (my other cakes are butter pound cake, chocolate cake, coffee cake and marble pound cake) and was also one of the cake recipes on my menu when I was running a cake decorating business. This cake has a soft and firm texture, making it most suitable for stacking and even carving. 

A true and tried recipe, I have baked this orange cake so many times and have perfected the recipe for various cake tin sizes. All you need to do is just follow the cake tin guides to bake the perfect orange cake everyone is going to rave about! 

Seen on this page is the image of my orange cake filled and frosted with buttercream and decorated with simple piped buttercream flowers.

My Recipe Notes – Orange Cake Recipe

• Make sure your cake tins are well greased and lined  – This may sound unimportant, but trust me, nothing is more frustrating than having a beautifully baked cake stuck to the cake tin that you have to dig it out. I normally prepare my cake tins by applying a layer of shortening and then dusting with flour. This helps release the cakes very quickly from the tins, but it is important for every nook and corner of the cake tin to be well greased or there is a high chance for parts of the cake to be stuck to the tin at the not-so-well greased parts. You can also line your tins with parchment paper, the choice is up to you so long as your cake tins are well prepared. You can see the many ways of lining cake tins in my post here.
• Measure your ingredients accurately – It is always important that all the ingredients in the recipe are measured accurately for consistent results every time. My recipes are all provided in imperial measurements instead of metrics measurement. I personally find it hard to measure accurately with cups and so prefer to use a kitchen scale .
• Make sure you use good quality ingredients and fresh oranges – The main ingredients in this recipe are self-raising flour, sugar, butter, eggs and orange. To these I add baking powder and orange juice to help with the texture and size of the cake. This orange cake uses the butter pound cake as the basis and as with any butter cakes, the quality of butter used plays an important role in the final taste of the cake. It is therefore really worth the cost to use good quality butter in making this cake. I use salted butter in the recipe and in fact, use salted butter for all my other recipes as well. This is why you will notice that the amount of salt added separately in the recipe is rather little. If you prefer to use unsalted butter, it is perfectly alright too, but you would need to increase the amount of salt you add separately to the cake batter. The other most important ingredient in this cake is off course the oranges. Use fresh, un-waxed oranges. Fresh oranges give better citrus flavor to the cake and un-waxed ones are very important as you don’t want waxed orange rind in your cakes! Orange rind is basically the thin orange layer on the skin of an orange. When taking the rind, you can use a grater to grate only the orange part of the skin. The white layer underneath the orange layer is bitter and you would definitely want to avoid grating that into your cake. If you don’t have a grater, use a sharp knife to slice the orange skin layer of the fruit (carefully avoiding the white layer underneath) and then chop it up into tiny bits with a knife. As for the orange juice in the recipe, always use freshly squeezed orange juice. You can add the pulps in as well but be sure to avoid the seeds! Its always easier to grate an orange before squeezing out its juice, so be sure to process your oranges in this order.
• Cream the butter and sugar well and fold in the flour – When creaming the butter and sugar as the start of making this cake, it is important that these 2 ingredients are well beaten. For the recipe measurement given above, you should cream these for at least 2 minutes for them to reach the right level of ‘light and fluffiness’. Larger cakes would require a longer creaming time and you would need to adjust the timing accordingly. The other point to pay attention to is the process of adding the flour and liquids to your cake. Always fold in the flour into the batter rather than beating it in. And do it in small portions. For smaller cakes, I portion my flour into 3 and the orange juice into 2. I start with one portion of flour, fold it into the creamed mixture, and then add the first portion of the juice. Once well combined, I add in the second portion of the flour followed by the last portion of the juice and complete the process with the 3^rd and last portion of flour. For larger cakes, I portion my flour and juice into more parts so that the ingredients are well combined every time I add them to the cake batter. It may not be practical to fold the flour by hand for large cakes, and if you prefer to use a cake mixer, make sure it is at its utmost minimum speed and you do not mix the batter too long. Suffice if the flour and milk is all incorporated.
• Constantly scrap the sides of your mixing bowl – when mixing the batter, right from the point where you cream your butter and sugar, always scrap the sides of your bowl frequently. This will ensure the ingredients are well mixed and your cake batter is all smooth and even.
• Butter and eggs should be at room temperature – Always make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature. Sometimes, the creamed butter and sugar mixture tend to curdle with the addition of eggs. If either the eggs or the butter is cold, your cake batter will tend to curdle. If both are of the same temperature, this is unlikely to happen, however, since butter needs to be softened at room temperature to cream it properly, curdling will tend to happen when the eggs are cold. To prevent this, make sure your eggs are also at room temperature. If at all your cake batter still curdles, do not worry. Add some flour and mix until it is no longer curdled and bake your cake as usual.
• If you wish to double or triple this orange cake recipe, follow the tin size guide I have provided with the recipe. Each calculated recipe produces 2 layers of cake that measure approximately 2 inches high each. It is advisable to not bake all the batter in one cake tin instead of dividing it into 2 as the cake would take much longer to bake in the middle causing the sides to be dry. Also, if you intend to make cakes larger than 10 inches in diameter, it is highly advisable to use cake strips or a heating core. These will prevent the cakes sides from drying out due to longer baking time for larger cakes. See my post here on how to achieve leveled cakes to learn more about using cake strips and heating cores.
• Don’t over bake the cakes – Baking time is another very important success factor for this orange cake recipe. If you want a soft, fluffy and moist cake, avoid over baking. Place the cake on the 3 rack in your oven and check if the cake is done at least 5 to 10 minutes before the baking time is up by inserting a long skewer in the center of the cake. If the skewer comes out without any wet batter sticking to it, the cake is done and can be removed from oven. Ideally, there should be soft cake crumbs sticking to your skewer. If the skewer comes out totally clean, the cake could have been overly cooked. Also, when the cake is done, the sides will pull away from the tin.
• Storing the orange cake – This cake can be served on the very same day it is baked, even while it is still warm (without any frosting). It is also equally good when baked in advance and stored in the fridge until it is ready for use, within one week. To store the cake in the fridge, wrap it tightly while it is still warm with cling wrap and refrigerate. Wrapping while still warm locks and distributes the moisture in the cake making in soft and moist after refrigeration. When you need to use it, remove the cake from the fridge and with the cling wrap still intact, let it warm up to room temperature. Remove the wrapping only after the cake has reached room temperature to prevent condensation on the cake which can reduce its shelf life. Leftovers of this cake can be stored at room temperature for a good 4 to 5 days provided it is handled without any moisture. The leftovers can last up to one week if refrigerated. If you wish to use this cake for carving, the cake is best left to rest for at least one day after baking for the texture to stabilize for easy carving with less crumbs.

Orange Cake Recipe

Here is the printable version of my orange cake recipe and while you are at it, don’t miss my recipe notes right below. They contain absolutely useful tips for the best orange cake ever!

Orange Cake

This orange cake recipe produces the most deliciously citrus flavored butter cake. The recipe comes with calculated ingredients for various cake tin sizes, making this an absolutely worth keeping recipe.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Orange Cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Yield: 2 Seven inches round cakes / Six inches square cakes

Author: Priya Maha

Metric – US Customary

Ingredients

• 360 g self raising flour
• 330 g castor sugar
• 360 g butter at room temperature
• 6 eggs at room temperature
• 90 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 4 oranges grated rind only
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp baking powder

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.
• Beat butter and sugar till soft and creamy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with orange juice, starting and ending with flour.
• Finally, add in grated orange rind and combine well. Pour batter into two greased and floured cake tins of the same size and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.
• Baking time for larger cakes may be slightly longer than smaller ones. Use a skewer to check that your cakes have cooked completely. Your cakes are also done when they start to separate from the sides of the cake tins and the top of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with finger.
• Remove cakes from oven and let them cool completely before decorating.
• Baking time may vary slightly for larger cakes.

Notes

Calculated Tin Sizes

9 inches round/ 8 inches square (makes 2 layers of 2 inch high cakes)

• 600 g butter
• 550 g castor sugar
• 600 g self-raising flour
• 10 eggs
• Grated rind of 6 oranges
• 150 freshly squeezed orange juice
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder

 

11 inches round/ 10 inches square (makes 2 layers of 2 inch high cakes)

• 840 g butter
• 770 g castor sugar
• 840 g self-raising flour
• 14 eggs
• Grated rind of 9 oranges
• 210 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 ¾ tsp baking powder

 

13 inches round/ 12 inches square (makes 2 layers of 2 inch high cakes)

• 1200 g butter
• 1100 g castor sugar
• 1200 g self-raising flour
• 20 eggs
• Grated rind of 13 oranges
• 300 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder

Note: Larger cakes may take a longer time to bake.

Nutrition

Calories: 2812kcal | Carbohydrates: 308g | Protein: 40g | Fat: 162g | Saturated Fat: 97g | Cholesterol: 878mg | Sodium: 1953mg | Potassium: 546mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 170g | Vitamin A: 5402IU | Vitamin C: 55mg | Calcium: 284mg | Iron: 4mg

And that is pretty much my notes for you on my orange cake recipe. 

Happy baking 🙂