Moist Orange Cake Recipe With Whole Oranges
“Everyone LOVED this cake! One person called it divine, another…went on and on about it!… It is very moist and strong orange flavor…” Lynn
This super moist orange cake recipe is rich, tender, sweet, and unmistakably citrusy – made with whole oranges for intense fresh orange flavor. Enjoy it plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or drizzle it with orange buttercream to take it over the top.
I’ve been making a version of this recipe, originally from Noreen Gilletz, for over 30 years. If you love orange desserts with bold (not subtle) orange flavor, you’ll love this cake.
What to expect
Compared to the original recipe, the cake is now lighter, super moist, and still preserves that strong orange flavor. Here’s the why and how.
- Using whole oranges gives the cake a strong, fresh orange flavor, but leaving too much of the white pith can make it bitter. Trimming most of it before blending is an easy fix that keeps the cake moist, tender, and bright.
You’ll need a food processor or blender to fully break down the orange and create a smooth, even batter.
Enjoy this great, easy cake to serve at a shower, tea, dinner party, or anytime you want to earn rave reviews.
Ingredients – tailored to your taste
- Oranges: Use 2 sweet, seedless oranges (navel, Cara Cara, or Valencia all work well). If the oranges have very little white pith under the rind, you can skip removing it. Thicker pith should be trimmed to avoid bitterness
- Remaining cake ingredients: eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, salt.
- Glaze or frosting (optional): butter, icing sugar, orange juice, and orange zest
Substitutions
- Flour – you can substitute 1/4 of the all-purpose flour with almond flour or whole wheat flour. Replacing more than that will change the texture of the cake and make it denser.
Variations
- Glaze/frosting (optional)
- I use a thin orange buttercream glaze, but you can easily adjust it. For a thicker frosting, use more butter and icing (confectioner’s) sugar or less orange juice.
- A 3-minute chocolate buttercream icing (like we use on our best banana cake) is excellent here because chocolate and orange are a perfect pairing.
- Or try this cream cheese frosting from our blueberry cake recipe. Add orange zest to make it an orange cream cheese frosting.
- Decoration – For a simple finish, try orange peel, thinly sliced orange slices, a dusting of confectioner sugar, chocolate shavings, or crushed toasted nuts.
Step-by-step instructions
Tip
For the purest orange flavor, remove most of the white pith before processing the oranges.
Shortcuts
- Use thin-skinned oranges: If your oranges have very little white pith, you can use them whole without trimming.
- Keep the finish simple: Skip the glaze or frosting and dust the cooled cake with icing (confectioners’) sugar instead.
Recipe FAQs
While the top layer of the orange zest (peel) has some bitterness from tannins, it’s the white part beneath the skin – the pith – that is very bitter. By removing much of the pith, you can avoid most of the bitterness. Another option is to boil the peel several times.
Yes, you will need a food processor or a blender to pulverize the orange and create a smooth batter. I also use the processor to cream the butter, sugar, and eggs, then blend the orange in the same bowl – no need to wash it in between.
For the orange cake recipe, you can use a 9″ (23cm) springform pan (what I use), two 8″ (20cm) round pans (for two layers), an 8″ (20cm) square pan, a 9″ round pan or 9×5′ (23×12.7″) inch loaf pan. Baking time will vary, so start checking for doneness during the last 10 minutes.
Yes! This cake is not gluten-free, but we have a wonderful gluten-free orange polenta cake you can try. It’s perfect after a Passover seder meal.
Yes, you can substitute half the butter with unsweetened applesauce for a lower-fat, lower-calorie version.
Yes. The cake keeps well at room temperature for a day and actually improves in flavor after a few hours. For longer storage, let it cool completely, wrap well, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Use room-temperature butter and eggs, measure the flour accurately (by weight or using the spoon-and-sweep method), and avoid overmixing the batter. Don’t add extra oranges – the extra liquid can cause the center to sink. Finally, keep an eye on doneness, as many ovens run hot or cool.
More delicious cake recipes
- Best banana cake with chocolate icing – super moist and very popular
- Moist apple cake recipe with bourbon caramel sauce – warm spices, decadent sauce!
- Simplified blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting – a really good simpler version
- Orange polenta cake (gluten free) – citrusy with a moist texture.
Please leave a 5 star rating ***** with a comment in the recipe card below if you like the recipe, Thank you so much!
Moist Orange Cake Recipe
Equipment
- food processor (or blender), medium-large mixing bowl, 9" (23cm) springform pan, Note 1 for other pan options.
Ingredients
whole orange cake
- 2 large seedless oranges about 184g each
- ¾ cups butter, cut in chunks 1½ sticks
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (use an extra ¼ cup/50g if oranges aren't too sweet)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour Note 2
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt skip if using salted butter
orange glaze or buttercream frosting (optional) Note 3
- 1 cup icing sugar also called confectioners or powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1 orange (use half an orange for fresh orange juice and zest) other half for decoration
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Video
Instructions
- HEAT OVEN TO 350F/177C. Spray 9 inch (23cm) springform pan with oil. Note 1 for other pan options.
- PREPARE ORANGES: Using a sharp knife, place orange on cutting board and slice off the thin top orange layer all around the orange. Try to get as little of the white pith layer as possible (leaving on some is fine – no need to obsess!). Then slice off the white pith layer and discard. Repeat with second orange. Cut oranges into quarters. Shortcut: If your oranges only have a very thin layer of pith, you can use the whole orange.
- CREAM BUTTER, SUGAR, EGGS: Place butter, sugar and eggs in food processor bowl. Process for 2 minutes at high speed until fluffy and creamy. Scrape down sides of bowl once or twice. Scoop mixture into medium-large bowl.
- GRIND ORANGES: Place oranges and orange peels in food processor. No need to clean out processor first. Process until finely blended, about 1 minute. Scrape orange mixture into bowl with butter mixture.
- FINISH BATTER: Add flour mixture of flour and baking powder. Gently fold into wet mixture just until incorporated. Do NOT over mix or the cake will be dense. Pour batter into prepared pan. Tap pan on counter to level the batter evenly.
- BAKE: for 45-50 minutes or until cake no longer jiggles when shaken and when cake tester or toothpick is inserted in center and comes out clean. Two 8" round pans will take less time, about 25-35 minutes. Timing depends on size of oranges (amount of liquid in cake) and your oven (all ovens are different and not perfectly accurate on temperatures). Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing on pan. Cool completely on cooling rack before frosting.
- MAKE FROSTING/GLAZE (OPTIONAL): While cake is baking, whisk icing/confectioner sugar, 1/2 of orange juice and orange zest with a fork in a small bowl. Add more orange juice until you get the consistency you like. Note 3 for traditional orange buttercream frosting.
- DECORATE: Sprinkle orange cake with powdered icing sugar (through a sieve) if not using frosting. If using frosting/glaze, spread it on top of cake letting it slip down the sides if desired. Decorate cake with orange zest strips, orange slices, drained mandarin oranges, a little bit of zest or crushed nuts if you like.
Recipe Notes
- Pan options: Different pan sizes will affect baking time, so start checking for doneness during the last 10 minutes. You can use:
- 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan (what I use)
- Two 8-inch (20 cm) round pans (for a layer cake)
- 8-inch (20 cm) square pan
- 9-inch round pan
- 9×5-inch (23×12.7 cm) loaf pan
- Flour options: You can substitute up to 1/4 of the flour (in this recipe, 1/2 cup/68g) with almond flour or whole wheat flour. More than that will make the cake dense.
- Orange frosting/glaze: The recipe makes enough thinner frosting/glaze to cover the top of the cake. If you want a thicker, more traditional buttercream frosting (easier with a food processor or electric mixer, use:
- 1 1/2 cups (180g) icing sugar,
- 1/4 cup butter ((4 tbsp/1/2 stick/57g) and
- 2-3 tbsp orange juice.
- Other frosting options:
- A chocolate buttercream frosting like we use on our best banana cake is a fantastic option because chocolate and orange are a perfect match.
- Or try this cream cheese frosting from our blueberry cake recipe. Add orange zest to it if you like.
- Lower calorie, lower fat version: Substitute half the butter with unsweetened applesauce using 6 tbsp butter and 6 tbsp applesauce. And skip the frosting (just dust with icing sugar).
- Make Ahead:
- The whole orange cake can be stored at room temperature for 3-4 days in an airtight container to keep it fresh and moist.
- The cake can also be frozen for 2-3 months.
Super moist and fresh.
Didn‘t have powdered sugar on hand, so we made a cream cheese frosting. Yum.
My boys, 10 and 13, loved it, too.
Ooh, a cream cheese frosting would be delicious on the orange cake! Glad you and your boys liked it.
One of the best cakes I have ever made….the orange flavor shines like sunshine!!!
Thrilled to hear that – thank you!
This is a fantastic recipe! Super moist and very tasty.
TERRIFIC, EASY, WOW!!!
I don’t even know how I found this recipe, but I’m so glad I did. It is very easy to make and the result is over the top yummy. I used organic Valencia oranges, used a carrot peeler to get the rind. The white pith came off with no problem. I followed the directions exactly and was done with a few whirls of the food processor. Easy, clean and quick. Put powdered sugar on top before serving (completely cool cake) Presentation, taste, texture were wonderful. So glad I found this awesome recipe. THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks so much for the lovely comment Wendy – we always appreciate feedback 🙂
This recipe sounds delicious and I am going to make it. But would like to know if I can make cupcakes instead of a cake and how many cupcakes will it make? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Josie. I haven’t tried it, but I think cupcakes should be just fine. Fill the cupcake liners in a standard cupcake pan about 2/3 full. You should get about 16-18 cupcakes. Bake at the same temperature until a tester comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes. Start checking at 17 minutes – everyone’s oven is different. We’d love to hear how they come out!
I’m currently making This
Orange cake only using half a sugar and using the whole orange as my orange tree only produces oranges with a very fine rind plus they are very juicy.. 🍊
Please let us know how it turns out Vicky. I’m curious about using half the sugar.
Our Navel Orange tree is laden annually with sweet give away Oranges.
I personal am not a fan of cooked Oranges. I made this for my hubby who absolutely loves it, after tasting a bit to my delight it was delicious! I make this on a regular basis through the year for hubby and friends who can’t get enough. When in season, I process the required amount of oranges and freeze the correct quantities into freezer bags. I make this wonderful cake all through the year.
When baking, hubby walks around the house singing yummy, yummy, yummy. (To the Abba Money Tune.) in anticipation… He’s a funny 69 year old😂😂😂 who loves your cake. Thank you for sharing it.
Wonderful story Susan – thanks so much for sharing it! I am visualizing your husband walking around the house singing in anticipation of a cake! – too funny 🙂
Awesome recipe! I made it exactly as written following the instructions to discard the extra pith. Everyone LOVED it! I’ve made it several times now for different occasions and it’s been a hit every time.
Thrilled to hear that. Thanks Tish!
This whole orange cake sounds divine! ?? Super moist and packed with fresh orange flavor, it’s the perfect balance of sweet and citrusy. Whether enjoyed on its own or topped with orange buttercream, it’s sure to be a new favorite!
Hope you like it 🙂
I am guessing around 1.5 to 2 cups of pulverized orange and peel would replace the two large oranges (without the white pith). Let us know if that works!