Serves a Crowd
by: Genius Recipes
January17,2018
4.3
50 Ratings
- Prep time 30 minutes
- Cook time 1 hour
- Serves 12
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
In this spunky citrus cake, you chuck fresh chunks of orange—skin, pith, and juicy flesh—right in the food processor and blitz till only tiny flecks of skin remain. After mixing this pulpy orange slush into the batter, the cake that comes out is incredibly moist (and gets more so by the day), with a flavor that’s marmalade-like but brighter, for people who prefer a bit of bitterness and complexity to straight sweet. And for those who don’t, the glaze is a good distraction. Recipe adapted from Sunset Magazine and Stephanie Spencer. —Genius Recipes
- Test Kitchen-Approved
What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Sunset's Whole OrangeCake
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
- 1 1/4 cups (250g) sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 oranges (about 1 pound/450g), ends trimmed, then cut into chunks and seeds removed
- 2 1/2 cups (315g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (see note)
- 1 1/2 cups (185g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice, from half an orange
Directions
- Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C) with a rack positioned in the center. Butter a 10-cup (2.37L) Bundt pan very well. For extra insurance, dust the pan with flour or dry breadcrumbs. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one.
- Pulse orange chunks in a food processor until mostly smooth but not completely puréed. Spoon out 1 1/2 cups (355ml) of the pulpy orange mixture and add to the batter, then beat until blended. Add the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and beat just until smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake until the cake is risen and firm to the touch, and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out with just crumbs clinging, about 55 minutes. Cool the pan on a rack set over a rimmed baking sheet for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack and let cool completely.
- Whisk together powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl, then taste and adjust the consistency to taste (if you'd like it thicker, add more powdered sugar; thinner, add more orange juice). Once the cake is cool, spoon the glaze over the top. Let the glaze set, then slice cake and serve. Store any leftovers airtight at room temperature.
- Note: This recipe was originally published and tested in Sunset magazine and on Food52 with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, but after consulting with an editor at Sunset, we upped the baking powder to 2 teaspoons for a more consistently lighter cake.
Tags:
- Cake
- American
- Orange
- Orange Juice
- Fruit
- Serves a Crowd
- Father's Day
- Mother's Day
- Christmas
- Easter
- Winter
- Spring
See what other Food52ers are saying.
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MichelleBee
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Jane Lightning
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Smaug
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garlic&lemon
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Ni$A 2022🍍
Recipe by: Genius Recipes
Popular on Food52
123 Reviews
FK January 27, 2024
I love the flavor of this cake, but the batter is SO THICK and the cake turned out crumbly. Do I need to cut off more of the orange ends? Do I need to supplement with more juice? I desperately want to make this work.
Beth January 27, 2024
Probably depends on the oranges, some are more juicy than others, some have thicker skin than others. Yes, add more juice if necessary.
Maruta28 January 10, 2024
Fabulous! Make sure you butter the pan really well, even if it is silicone, like mine, to avoid sticking. Also, I reduced sugar to 180g and it was perfect. Very fresh and citrusy.
Gini August 19, 2022
As is, it can be a show stopper. But with mint leaves and golden berries surrounding the circumference it looks like a beautiful wreath. Plus, it's delicious.
MichelleBee April 11, 2022
Can a Springform Pan be used for this recipe? I do not own a bunt Pan.
Smaug April 11, 2022
I made a 1/2 recipe in a 7" springform, no problem.
Jenny January 2, 2022
The cake was wonderfully moist and fragrant with a lovely marmalade-like sweet and bitter flavour. I reduced the amount of sugar to 175g and found it to be plenty, especially with the icing on top. My bundt pan could only just about fit the cake in it, so it would potentially have been better to halve the recipe. Another thing that stood out to me was that the amount of flour in grams was quite a bit less than it was in cups, so I went with something in the middle: a bit more than what it said in grams but a bit less than the amount in cups. Would next time confidently just go by the amount in grams. I also happened to end up with more of the orange puree than in the recipe and used it instead of discarding the leftovers. Lovely recipe!
Mecablond October 26, 2021
I made and it was really good, I also made the gluten free version and was also as good and friends with this type of problem were really satisfied........Now I need a tip to use this recipe using pineaple insted of oranges....... can you help?
Hilary April 27, 2021
Really lovely! Made as instructed, except added a touch of vanilla to the cake batter and increased the salt to 1/2 tsp as per the suggestion in the comments. Lovely!
Jane L. March 15, 2021
Just Delicious!
I doubled the glaze recipe since my family are a bunch of icing freaks. Rave reviews! Thanks!
Amy January 17, 2021
Lovely cake! I think the cake flavor would be improved with more salt, glaze flavor improved with salt and vanilla extract.
Smaug January 3, 2021
This was pretty good. I made half the recipe in a smallish (8x4x2 1/2) loaf pan, which worked fine and left a fairly flat top for the glaze. That allowed me to make a wetter glaze (65g. sugar and 5 tsp. sour tangerine juice), which would have mostly run off a Bundt cake- it did take a while to dry, but I didn't want so much sugar on top. The texture is as advertised, very nice. The bitter tone from the peel was interesting- I don't know that I particularly liked it, but interesting.
Smaug January 17, 2021
Tried this again with most (I'd say about 80%) of the pith removed; also added 1/4 tsp. orange oil. I'd say that the flavor was overall better balanced, but it lacked some of the je ne sais quoi factor of the original. Also, of course, you lose the just toss it in the blender appeal of the original- the oranges need to be zested, then peeled before cutting them up. In theory, it should be a little less moist than the original, and maybe it was, but quite moist enough for any normal purpose. I made 1/2 recipe in a 7" springform, a very good fit, and it allowed me to glaze the cake while still warm (which of course you couldn't do with a bundt cake). I used the same glaze above (I have sour tangerines because there hasn't been enough cold here for them to ripen fully- an alternative would be sour orange juice, or maybe Meyer lemon)- the cake absorbed a good deal of it, and it dried quickly.
January 2, 2021
Cara Cara Oranges are in season! They make the most amazing version of this cake. Such a treat in the winter. In a couple of months when the oranges start to get less fragrant, I add 1/2 tsp of Boyajian Orange Oil to boost that orange flavor right back up. Even in the pandemic with only 2 people in the house, I slice it and freeze them with some waxed paper between the slices to keep them from sticking together. A quick 20-30 seconds in the microwave and fresh cake for lunch desert. All ready for the next 4 hours of Zoom.
Ni$A 2. December 31, 2020
I have only one word to describe this recipe: DELICIOUS 😋
MJ-YOW December 26, 2020
Excellent Results - i added about a half cup of unsweetened shredded coconut and half cup of chopped dried pineapple- amped up the tropical notes
Nancy December 7, 2020
Late to the party, but glad to see this recipe. Both because of the whole orange (sounds good!) and because of Sunset Magazine, which I've always found a treasure trove of recipes.
Ditiya F. September 17, 2020
I have made this cake several times now and it is just really really great. I would recommend using the 2 whole oranges, not omitting the peel because when it's baked into the cake, it gives it a slight bitterness that i absolutely love and also makes the texture much more interesting. I end up with a cake batter that is quite stable, fluffy and aerated, not runny at all but not dense, making sure to fold in the flour and orange without knocking out all of the air from the creamed butter and sugar. It comes out with such a delicate crumb and aromatic flavor. So nice! I usually get away with using only 3/4 cups of sugar in the batter and adding a dark chocolate drizzle on top.
beejay45 November 19, 2020
Yes! As I watched the video, I was thinking that what this cake cried out for was a dark chocolate glaze. Orange and chocolate are never wrong.
Jane L. March 15, 2021
It is, after all, your cake...have a blast with your chocolate!
Alison May 18, 2020
I should have added that I scrubbed my oranges to get off any wax or coating—they were organic to begin with, but I didn’t want any flavors from the coatings that are so common.
Alison May 18, 2020
This was absolutely delicious! I used two Cara Cara oranges and one Moro, which produced an orange flavor with depth and a perfumed aroma that was amazing. The Moro orange had a lot of pith, so I trimmed some of that one more. I made according to recipe. It seemed plenty sweet to me, but not overly so. I will be making this again.
gratifi K. April 16, 2020
Hi, I scrolled through the reviews to see if anyone has tried this cake with whole Meyer lemons? Even for Meyer lemons, the pith might be too bitter?
alicia D. May 22, 2020
Christina’s Cucina website has a recipe for Whole Lemon Cake (one for conventional orange and GF orange as well. Her GF whole orange is the most delicious GF recipe I e ever eaten.)
Brianna R. June 7, 2020
I make it with 3 lemons regularly, it’s delicious. I do usually add a bit of extra sugar.
Justine S. April 5, 2020
I loved this cake! My whole family did too. It will definitely go into heavy rotation for us. I'm wondering if it would work with other fruits too? I made a kumquat cake a few months back and I could see that working here easily - but what about something like strawberries, or lime (would it be enough sugar) - would it work out since the fruit brings so much moisture to the batter?
Jane L. March 15, 2021
Love love love kumquats, thanks for the idea.
Justine S. April 5, 2020
I loved this cake! My whole family did too. It will definitely go into heavy rotation for us. I'm wondering if it would work with other fruits too? I made a kumquat cake a few months back and I could see that working here easily - but what about something like strawberries, or lime?
