Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake

When I think of spring baking, my mind automatically goes to citrus. I’ll be honest, these past few weeks my mind has been all but ruled by ideas for baking with orange, lemons and limes. I’m not usually much of a baker in the warmer months, but this spring seems to be an exception! There is something so refreshing, so clean about citrus. And as we move into the warmer months, refreshing is what we crave. This Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake is what springtime baking is all about – light, refreshing and not overly sweet. It’s the kind of dessert you’d expect to see at a shower, brunch, Derby party or weekend barbecue.

What’s in this Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake

This cake uses both the orange zest and its juice. When I was squeezing out the juice, it really made me realize just how different freshly squeezed juice is from bottled juice. Even the best bottled juices (my go-to brand is Simply Orange) taste much different when side-by-side with freshly-squeezed. We have been making a lot of Orange Crushes lately, using a juicer to squeeze the OJ fresh. It reminds me of being on vacation on a tropical island. And I also realized that I had misplaced my orange extract – and by “misplaced”, I mean that my 10-year old niece had “reorganized” my pantry and it suddenly went missing. So instead of using a 50/50 mix of orange and vanilla extracts, I ended up using all vanilla. I think the cake turned out as it was meant to, getting all of its orange flavor from natural sources.

In addition to the freshly-squeezed orange juice, this Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake gets is light and moist texture from my favorite secret ingredient – sour cream. A little bit goes a long way to get that smooth texture that’s never crumbly or dry. The double-dose of vanilla glaze also drenches the cake and makes it irresistibly moist.

Does this Orange Cake have to be a bundt?

I’ve been asked recently if the cakes you see on the blog can be made into different shapes – for example, could a bundt cake recipe be made in a loaf pan? Or could a loaf bread recipe be made into cupcakes? The answer is “usually”. The shape of a bundt pan allows heat to disburse throughout the cake, cooking the insides and bottom as evenly as the top. So making a bundt cake recipe in a loaf pan would mean adjusting cooking times, and probably dividing the batter into two loaf pans to allow for more even baking.

Most cakes can be make into cupcakes by simply adjusting baking times. Breads, on the other hand, have a different consistency than cakes and should be baked in loaf pans as a practice. For our purposes, if you wanted to make little orange cupcakes with vanilla glaze, you totally could. Cake is cake, even when it’s in miniature form. Just cut your baking time in half and monitor the process closely.

I just made this Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake for Mother’s Day. I know that my mom, if she was with us, would love it. My mom lives in Florida and, sadly, we will only be able to Facetime together on Mother’s Day. But I’ll be baking this cake again for her when she visits over the summer. Although, after this quarantine, I may just go to her. I could use some palm trees these days, couldn’t you? Enjoy!

Vanilla-Glazed Orange Cake

A beautiful cake for springtime, this bundt cake is light, spongy with subtle hints of orange and vanilla

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Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 40 mins

Total Time 1 hr 10 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 10

Ingredients

  

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The Cake

• 3 cups flour
• 2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 Tbsp. sour cream
• 4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 4 Tbsp. orange zest about 6 oranges
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt

The Glaze

• 1 1/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. milk more if needed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a bundt pan thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray.
• In a stand mixer or using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the orange zest. Add the eggs, one at at time.
• In a medium-sized bowl, combine the orange juice, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream.
• In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the juice mixture until combined. Pour the batter into the bundt pan. Bake for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean. Allow to cool completely before turning onto a cake plate.
• Make the glaze: Whisk all ingredients together in a glass liquid measuring cup. Pour glaze in a back and forth motion over the cake, from outside to inside. Repeat all the way around the cake.

Keyword cake, dessert

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