Orange Cake
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This Orange Cake is delicate, fluffy, and bursting with sunshine! Made with everyday baking staples and the juice and zest of fresh oranges, it’s finished with an orange-vanilla glaze to take it over the top. Enjoy a slice with a cup of tea or for dessert.
Why you’ll love this recipe!
Real oranges – The juice and zest from fresh oranges give this simple cake the brightest orange flavors.
SO moist – Most orange cake recipes use oil for moisture, but I used eggs and applesauce for a slightly healthier cake.
Easy & elegant – Like my pistachio cake and vegan coffee cake, this is an easy one-layer cake with some serious fancy vibes.
Table of Contents
Cake! I love cake. My sweet tooth practically calls out for a slice of lavender coffee cake or chocolate coconut cake when it’s time for dessert.
I make this Orange Cake when I want to channel my inner Martha Stewart. It’s a simple but sophisticated one-layer dessert with a fluffy, golden crumb and a glistening orange vanilla glaze. But it’s the vibrant orange flavors in every bite that make it a winning sweet treat.
Take it from me, the biggest cake lover I know: The melt-in-your-mouth texture and bright pops of citrus in each slice will bring a little more sunshine to anyone’s day.
Orange Cake Ingredients
Navel oranges – It wouldn’t be an orange cake without the fresh citrus flavors and aromas, so I zested a large navel orange before squeezing out all of the juice. If you don’t have a navel orange, use mandarin oranges, blood oranges, or any other kind of orange you like.
Applesauce – The cake gets most of its moisture from plain, unsweetened applesauce. Melted coconut oil or vegetable oil will work as substitutes, but the crumb won’t be as light or delicate.
Flour – Classic all-purpose flour works perfectly.
Orange vanilla glaze – I decorated the cake with a very simple glaze made from powdered sugar, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
This list is to provide further clarification on a few of the ingredients. See recipe card below for the full ingredient list.
Variations
- Orange almond cake – Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract to the wet ingredients for just a kiss of almond. You could sprinkle toasted almond slices over the glaze, too!
- Gluten-free option – I haven’t tested this recipe with anything other than all-purpose flour, but a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend might work as a substitute.
- Glaze substitute – If you’d rather keep it simple, sift powdered sugar over the cake instead.
How to Make Orange Cake
Step 1: Make the orange sugar. Add the sugar and orange zest to a bowl and rub them together with your fingers until fragrant. Add the butter to the same bowl and beat with a mixer until fluffy.
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients. Next, mix the eggs, milk, orange juice, applesauce, and vanilla with the butter-sugar mixture until combined.
Step 3: Whisk dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl.
Step 4: Combine. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined.
Step 5: Bake. Pour the cake batter into a cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Set it aside to cool.
Step 6: Make the glaze. Meanwhile, whisk the orange juice and vanilla together in a bowl, then whisk in the powdered sugar until you have a smooth glaze.
Step 7: Decorate and serve. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake and use a spatula to spread it evenly over the top. Slice and enjoy!
Erin’s Tips and Tricks
- Only zest the orange peel, not the white pith underneath. The pith is very bitter, and you don’t want it messing with the cake!
- Zest the orange before juicing it. It’s way easier this way, trust me.
- Room temperature ingredients are easier to incorporate into cake batters. Remember to take the eggs, butter, milk, oranges, applesauce, and any other refrigerated ingredients out of the fridge at least 30 minutes ahead of time.
- Don’t overmix the batter when combining the wet and dry mixes. To keep the cake’s delicate crumb, very gently combine the two with a wooden spoon or spatula until the flour is absorbed.
- Garnish the cake with candied orange slices, fresh mint leaves, or extra orange zest to make it feel extra fancy.
My Pro Tip
Glazing The Cake
The cake has to be completely cooled before pouring the glaze over the top. If it’s still warm, the glaze will melt right off! Also, give the glaze a minute or two to harden after pouring it over the cake. The glisten and shine are so worth the wait.
Orange Cake FAQs
Bottled orange juice does work here, but it won’t perfume the cake with the same fresh aromatic oils found in the juice and zest of a real orange.
This recipe makes enough cake batter for a 9×5 loaf pan or a standard bundt pan. I’d recommend checking for doneness around the 45-minute mark—it may take slightly longer to bake in these pans.
Storage
Make-ahead: I like to serve this cake fresh to enjoy each moist and fluffy bite to the fullest. That said, the unglazed cake will still be a bit moist after staying covered on the kitchen counter for 1 to 3 days.
Refrigerator: The whole cake or individual slices can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Keep in mind that it will dry out slightly as it sits.
Freezer: You can wrap the unglazed cake in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw it on the kitchen counter before pouring the glaze over top.
More Cake Recipes
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Orange Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- Zest from 1 navel orange
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Glaze:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- ¼ tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 9” cake pan with parchment paper; set aside.
- Add the sugar and orange zest to a large bowl, then use your fingers to rub them together until fragrant. To that same bowl, add the butter and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
- Then, add the eggs, milk, orange juice, applesauce, and vanilla to that bowl and mix to combine.
- In a separate bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, then gently stir to combine just until the flour disappears. Pour the batter in to the prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully inverting it onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool before adding the glaze.
- For the glaze, whisk the orange juice and vanilla together, then add in the powdered sugar and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it out across the top. Wait a few minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Erin – this cake is STUNNING! I love the color of that frosting and it might be the perfect thing to make for Mother’s Day this weekend!!
Oh my, burning pasta?! I burned a can of green beans when I was younger. Talk about an awful smell!! Regardless, this cake looks so beautiful. I don’t have enough confidence to bake cakes.
Hahah that probably smelled awful. And cakes are easy! Well, easier than they look AND easier than cookies in my opinion. Which is surprising but true!