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Ingredients

  • 6 Tablespoons Butter
  • From One Orange Orange Zest
  • 2 Cup Sugar
  • 4 Eggs
  • 3 Cups Flour
  • 3 Teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 Cup Orange Juice, fresh

Classic Orange Cake

A classic orange cake that perfect for cupcakes, too!

1 hour

Serves: 12-16

Easy

A flavorful cake that's refreshing and prevents scurvy.

Orange Cake Ingredients

This vintage Orange Cake recipe is definitely one of Grandma Jackie’s classic cakes. It’s perfect for a summer party but we found eating it in February was just fine by us. The recipe as Grandma has it below, is perfect for 14 cupcakes. She notes that you can multiply it by 1 ½ and it’ll make 2 larger cakes, but I doubled it for two 8″ round cake tins and found that it was just about perfect. The ingredients to the left and the recipe below are for the double batch, 2 8″ cakes.

One thing I did change from Grandma’s recipe is that I used a trick I had learned. I made orange sugar by zesting an entire orange into the sugar and blending a food processor until totally combined. To zest the orange I used a vegetable peeler as well, so I got big stripes of the rind. Of course, be sure to only get the orange part and don’t peel too much into the white. I found that zest in the sugar really added to the flavor. Other than that, Grandma’s recipe was followed completely.

Grandma didn’t mention any frosting with her recipe, so I did have to look around for something that would go well with an orange cake. I ended up making a Creamsicle flavored buttercream frosting by adding orange juice and vanilla to a traditional butter cream recipe. It was fabulous! I highly recommend.

Orange Cake Recipe

Steps:

  • Preheat the Oven to 350º 
  • Prep Your Tins 

    I used two 8" round cake tins. Butter or spray them and put in a round piece of parchment in the bottom. I use baking spray which is a combination of oil and flour.

    Orange Cake Prep Tins
  • Make the Orange Sugar 

    Add your sugar and large strips of the orange rind (I used a vegetable peeler) into your food processor and grind until the orange peel is fully combined.

    Orange Cake Make Orange Sugar
  • Cream the Butter and Sugar 

    Combine your room temperature butter and the orange sugar and mix until fully combined.

    Orange Cake Softened Butter
    Orange Cake Cream Butter & Sugar
  • Add Eggs & OJ 

    Add each egg separately and fully incorporate between each egg. Add the fresh orange juice to the batter and mix until just combined.

    Orange Cake Add Eggs
    Orange Cake Add Orange Juice
  • Combine Dry Ingredients and Add to Batter 

    In a separate bowl, add your flour and baking powder and whisk together until well blended. Add the dry ingredients to the batter by 1/2 cup increments mixing until just combined between each addition.

    Orange Cake Dry Ingredients
    Orange Cake Add Flour
    Orange Cake Batter Ready
  • Pour Into Tins & Bake 

    Pour the batter into to tins and make sure they are equal to ensure even baking times. Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes. Once you've taken the cakes out of the oven, allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the tin and then turn out, inverted, onto a wire rack. Allow to cool completely.

    Orange Cake in Tins
    Orange Cake Cooling
  • Decorate 

    Once the cakes have fully cooled, decorate!

    Orange Cake Decorated

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Comments:

2 Responses

  1. Hi there! I noticed on grandma’s recipe card she used 1/2 cup oj. On your doubled recipe you wrote down 1/2 cup oj. Did you mean to maybe double that? I’m about to make this and not sure if maybe there is a typo. Thanks!

    1. Yes! Good catch. I’ve corrected it in the recipe now. Sorry for the delayed response. I hope you still made the cake and that you enjoyed it!

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