Orange Juice Cake
An easy orange juice cake made from scratch. You can make this homemade cake by oven baking for 45 -50 minutes for a light textured cake or cook in the slow cooker for 2 ½ hours for a moist 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.