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I love a good loaf cake and my amazing orange cake is no exception! What a welcome burst of orange-flavored sunshine this was in the middle of a seriously cold winter here. Sometimes you just have to bake up something that cheers you up with the mere taste of it – and that’s what this orange bread did.
Love loaf style cakes / breads? Try my Cranberry Orange Bread or Strawberry Bread too!
Orange Cake
Oranges are cheap, cheerful, and plentiful year-round, which is exactly why we should be cooking and baking with them. Combined with my orange icing glaze (linked to in the recipe card below), this makes an amazing dessert or even a breakfast with a nice cup of coffee!
They key to this recipe is to try and use only the very best quality ingredients that you can find. When you have such a simple recipe, the basic ingredients really stand out, so make sure you find the highest quality possible.
Ingredients
To make this delicious loaf cake, you’ll need the following ingredients. Make sure to check the recipe card below for exact measurements and full instructions.
- butter
- granulated sugar
- large eggs
- orange zest
- orange juice
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt
- orange icing glaze
How to Make Orange Cake
Preheat your oven to 350 °F, grease a standard loaf pan, and set aside. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth then add in the eggs, one at a time until fully combined. Mix in the orange zest and juice until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add into the butter mixture and stir until mixed in well.
Spoon into the loaf pan, smoothing out the top. Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Glaze with my Orange Icing Glaze when fully cooled.
Choosing the best oranges for your orange cake
I have good luck usually with Sunkist when I can find them, it seems that there is a better quality to them when they have that label. Cara Cara oranges are also a good bet for juice and flavour, they are slightly pink inside as well.
When it comes down to picking a good orange to use, try to find which ones are really thick-skinned and avoid them at all costs – those are always terrible inside. If you can, try to find Florida-grown oranges, those are usually the best but when everything is off-season you’re going to have to look extra hard for good oranges.
Tips & Tricks
- Find oranges with the brightest, best color on the outside. Smell the oranges when you are picking them. Sometimes you can get a really good sense of the orange inside when it smells very fragrant. That also means that the oils in the peel are strong, which means you will get a strong flavor when you zest it.
- Pick the freshest, best oranges that you can find for this cake.
- Look for oranges that have healthy peels on the outside, remember that you are going to zest the peel so look for skin that is unblemished.
- This loaf cake will stay in a container for 3 days at room temperature, refrigerating it will make it hard. I am sure your family will eat it up within those 3 days.
- Make sure to use my Orange Icing Glaze on this orange loaf cake, it is the best! If you want to mix and match maybe try out my Lemon Icing Glaze for a crazy good citrus loaf cake!
Happy baking everyone!
Love,
Karlynn
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Amazing Orange Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons orange zest
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- orange icing glaze
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Grease a standard loaf pan ( 9x5x3 inches approximately) and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at at a time until fully combined. Mix in the orange zest and juice until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add into the butter mixture and stir until mixed in well.
- Spoon into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing out the top. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can touch the pan safely. Turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
- Glaze with my Orange Icing Glaze when fully cooled.
rose says
YUM! I used bread flour instead of all purpose baking flour and it turned out perfect, didnt even need to icing! Super moist and the perfect amount of orange flavor. My son loved this and will definitely be making this again. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
Sandy says
Made this on a day we were expecting 4-6 inches of snow plus ice. It’s a winner to me. Delicious! I used bread flour. I bought it buy mistake & wanted to use it. I didn’t have enough o.j. so I used concentrate w/a little Water. Didn’t take an hour to bake. I couldn’t wait so I cut it while it was warm. Delicious even without icing.
Gail says
Mine also came out very dry. I didn’t read the comments until I already had it in the oven so I turned the thermometer down to 340 and baked it for 45 minutes. I even made an orange syrup and punched holes into the cake to pour the syrup into but should have made more syrup
Elaine Gibb says
Was OK. Having read the comments before making this, I added a good tablespoon of yoghurt to it hoping to make it less dry. That did not work. It has a very mild orange flavor, but is dry.
Probably won’t make this again.
Will continue to make the lemon loaf that Karlynn has on her website, as that is truly delicious.
Deborah says
Rude
Wanda Oickle says
Yes, very rude comment above.
I have made this recipe several times and it’s delicious. Sometimes I add the g,she , other times I don’t
Janet says
I’m sorry to say the cake was very dry.
Angie says
Thank you for this delicious recipe, Karlynn. Followed your easy-to-follow instructions to a “T” and made two perfect loaves. FABULOUS orange flavours. Thanks again!
PegP says
I love this recipe. I’ve made it multiple times, including just now. I don’t know why the other commenter’s recipe didn’t turn out, but I’ve never had a problem with it. I used two oranges which gave me a hair over 1/2 c juice and plenty of orange zest. I don’t adjust or add anything to the recipe except for the glaze. I don’t make the glaze because I find it plenty flavorful and sweet without it. Maybe one day I should try it, though.