An easy recipe for an orange juice cake from scratch. For folks who love oranges and homemade cake you can’t go wrong with this.
You won’t see any orange jello or packet cake mix in this recipe. This cake is so quick to make using fresh ingredients and is bursting with mouth-watering orange flavour. You are going to love it!
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How To Make This Cake From Scratch
This is such an easy orange cake to make, using juice and zest from fresh oranges. You literally put everything into a large mixing bowl and mix for 4 minutes using an electric mixer, then pour the batter in to the prepared cake tin and cook.
You have a choice of making either a light textured cake or a moist and slightly dense cake. All you need to do is choose the cooking method, oven baked or slow cooked.
Oven Baked Cake Verses Slow Cooker Cake
Oven baking will produce a cake that is well risen, light in texture and only slightly moist. For a moister version of this cake, cook it in a slow cooker.
You won’t get a cake that rises as much as in the oven, instead it will be denser in texture and very moist because takes longer to cook and at a lower temperature.
Looking for more easy baking recipes for dessert? Try one of these!
Chocolate Brownies with Pecans these chocolate and orange brownies, are not only super moist they are also made even more decadent with a generous helping of pecan nuts.
Banana Bread is an easy banana bread recipe that's full of flavor and is super moist. This has to be one of our favorite ways to use up over ripe bananas.
Jam Thumbprint Cookies these cookies are not overly sweet and is so buttery that it just melts in your mouth. So, be prepared to make another batch soon, as they will disappear right before your eyes.
Two Easy Cake Decorating Ideas
Once the cake is made it could eat as is, but, why not go one step further. Decorate the cake with caramelized orange slices or crystallized orange peel. These are very simple to make and finish the cake nicely.
How To Make Caramelized Orange Slices
Wash and rinse one to two oranges. Using a sharp knife, cut the orange into very thin even sized rounds, less than 0.5 cm thick, and remove the seeds.
In a medium skillet place 1 cup sugar and ½ cup water, bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat down to medium.
Carefully add the prepared orange slices and cook for 6 – 8 minutes, turning the pieces once or twice while cooking in the syrup.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly in the syrup. Use tongs to transfer the caramelized orange slices to a wire rack to drain and cool completely.
Or you might like to try this recipe for candied orange slices.
How To Make Crystallized Orange Peel
Wash and rinse one to two large oranges. Cut the top and bottom of the orange. Using a sharp knife peel the skin from the orange.
Carefully scrape away as much of the white pith from the skin as possible and discard the white pith. Cut the orange peel into thin strips, about a match stick size and thickness. Put aside.
In a small pot place ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water, bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar has dissolved turn down the heat to medium.
Add the prepared orange peel pieces and cook for 6 – 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.
Drain away as much of the liquid as you can, transferring the drained peel to a small bowl filled with about 1 cup of castor sugar. Roll the peel in the sugar to coat.
Spread the sugar-coated peel in a single layer on a tray and allow to air dry for a few hours before using.
The orange juice cake from scratch in the background, was baked in the oven, it is topped with a simple cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with crystallized orange peel. The orang juice cake in the front, has been cooked in a slow cooker, and decorated with caramelized orange slices and a drizzle of orange syrup.
Recipe
Orange Juice Cake
INGREDIENTS
CAKE
- 250 grams (8.81 ounces) self-raising flour
- 40 grams (1.41 ounces) custard powder
- 240 grams (8.46 ounces) caster sugar fine sugar
- 80 grams (2.82 ounces) butter softened and chopped
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
FROSTING
- 125 grams (4.4 ounces) softened cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
INSTRUCTIONS
- OVEN BAKED - METHOD- Lightly grease the inside of an 18 cm cake tin, and line the base with baking paper.Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F)- In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and custard powder, add the sugar, butter, eggs, orange zest and orange juice. Use an electric mixer beat the mixture for 4 minutes or until it is smooth.- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.- Oven bake for 40 – 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.- Remove from the oven and allow to stand in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool. Decorate with frosting and or crystallised orange peel.
- SLOW COOKER -METHOD- Choose a cake tin that will fit into your slow cooker. My slow cooker is 6.5 litres in size and I used an 18 cm cake tin.- Grease and line the tin as you would normally do when baking cakes.- In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and custard powder, add the sugar, butter, eggs, orange zest and orange juice. Use an electric mixer beat the mixture for 4 minutes or until it is smooth.- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.- Place the batter filled cake tin onto the slow cooker.- (This step is optional) Drape a clean tea towel over the top of the slow cooker before putting the lid on. The tea towel will absorb any condensation which might occur.- Set your slow cooker to high and cook for 2 – 2 ½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.- Carefully remove the cake from the slow cooker and allow to stand in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Decorate with caramelised orange slices.
- CREAM CHEESE FROSTING- In a small bowl combine all the ingredients for the cream cheese frosting, beat well until smooth.- Spread over the top of the cake and sprinkle with crystallised orange peel.
- CRYSTALLISED ORANGE PEEL- Wash and rinse one large orange.- Cut the top and bottom of the orange.- Using a sharp knife peel the skin from the orange.- Carefully scrape away as much of the white pith from the skin as possible.- Cut the orange peel, into roughly even sized thin strips. Put aside.- In a small pot place ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water, bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Turn down the heat to medium.- Add the prepared orange peel pieces and cook for 6 – 8 minutes.- Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.- Drain away as much of the liquid as you can and coat the peel in castor sugar.- Spread the sugar-coated peel in a single layer on a tray and allow to air dry.- Store in an air tight container.
- CARAMELISED ORANGE SLICES- Wash and rinse one to two oranges.- Cut the orange into 0.5 cm thin even sized rounds- In a medium skillet place 1 cup sugar and ½ cup water, bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Turn down the heat to medium.- Add the prepared orange peel pieces and cook for 6 – 8 minutes. Turning every now and again.- Remove from the heat and allow to cool slight in the syrup.- Transfer to a wire rack and allow to drain.
Jocelyn Mallory says
This looks like a great cake but the ingredients are listed in metric units. It wasn’t worth the effort to convert the ingredients to the imperial system. That is too bad unless i missed something.
Sarah says
Great recipe
Harriet Britto says
Glad you liked it!