Floral and aromatic orange blossom pound cake topped with a tart citrusy orange glaze. This cake has subtle yet elegant flavors and undertones sure to impress.
The nickname for this cake is insurrection cake, or at least that’s what we call it in my household. I developed this recipe the day of the January 6th capitol riots while stress baking over the attempted coup going on 4 miles away from my house (living in DC is not all sunshine and rainbows). The product was a bright and citrusy pound cake that has now made it to my blog in multiple iterations. Check out my Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake if oranges aren’t your thing. This version uses orange blossom water which makes an aromatic and floral flavor that can’t be beat.
Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake: https://dishingwithdelaney.com/lemon-blueberry-pound-cake/
Orange Blossom Cake Ingredients:
This cake uses fairly simple ingredients, with a few special additions to bring out the flavor of the orange blossom.
- Butter: Use unsalted room temperature butter. Creaming cold butter will not produce the fluffy cake texture we are going for.
- Sugar: Plain granulated sugar works perfectly. If you’re outside the US and have caster sugar, that will work too!
- Orange zest: Be sure to actually measure this out, 1 tablespoon is more than you think.
- Eggs: Be sure to use room temperature eggs to avoid a curdled cake, Vital Farms makes my favorite eggs.
- Flour: Measure your flour with a scale for the most accurate results! If you don’t have a scale, scoop the flour into your measuring cup with a spoon for the most accurate results (that being said, I highly recommend investing in a scale).
- Baking Powder: Be sure to use powder instead of soda, or else your cake will not rise.
- Salt: Once again, actually measure it out, the right amount of salt can drastically improve the flavor of a cake.
- Buttermilk: Use real buttermilk! You can make your own if you must with milk and an acid, but the same flavor won’t be there.
- Orange Blossom Water: I talk about this more below, but here’s my favorite brand.
What is Orange Blossom Water?
Orange Blossom water is a clear aromatic made from the distillation of the blossoms from a bitter orange tree. It produces a citrusy, slightly bitter, perfumey flavor that is used often in Persian and Arabic dishes. In this cake it compliments the sweet orange glaze, with a nice aromatic bitter flavor. If this doesn’t sound up your alley, you can make my lemon cake with oranges instead for a simpler flavor.
How to Make an Orange Loaf Cake
Start by creaming the butter, sugar, and orange zest together for at least 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl multiple times while creaming to ensure that the batter is even. Then add in the eggs one at a time until homogenous.
While the butter and sugar cream, whisk together your dry ingredients in a separate small bowl. Also, mix the buttermilk and orange blossom water together in a small bowl or measuring jug. Begin alternating adding your wet and dry ingredients in, starting and ending with dry to form a cohesive cake batter. Pour into a prepared loaf pan and bake for 70-80 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. While the cake bakes, whisk together the orange juice and powdered sugar to form a glaze consistency of your liking. Take the orange blossom cake out of the oven, let cool, pour on glaze, and enjoy!
Avoiding a Curdled Cake Batter:
Curdling a cake batter is a mistake that happens all too often for beginner bakers. It occurs when your ingredients are at different temperatures so a proper emulsion cannot be made. To avoid a curdled cake batter here are my top 3 tips.
- Allow all your ingredients to come to room temperature for at least 2 hours in advance. This includes your eggs, milk, and butter. If you buy local eggs, ask your seller if they have been washed and can be kept at room temperature all the time.
- Add your eggs in one at a time thoroughly mixing before adding the next. It can be tedious, but makes your emulsion way more likely to succeed.
- Start and finish the adding of the drys and buttermilk with the dry ingredients. Follow the dry-wet-dry-wet-dry pattern for the most success.
If you want to learn more emulsion tips, Food52 has a great article on it here:
Frequent Questions:
I’ve found it in Whole Foods, Shoppers, and some other specialized grocery stores. I would highly recommend calling your local Middle Eastern market and seeing if they have it on hand. If not, you can buy it on amazon here.
Loaf cakes can be tricky to tell doneness with because of how tall they are. I myself am a chronic under baker of loaf cakes. I recommend using a long skewer and making sure that even at the bottom, the cake is fully cooked.
Yes-ish, I would pour the batter only 3/4 way up the pan and then place any extra in a muffin tin or ramekin to bake beside it.
Orange Blossom Loaf Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 70 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 slices 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: British
Description
Floral and aromatic orange blossom pound cake topped with a tart citrusy orange glaze. This cake has subtle yet elegant flavors and undertones sure to impress.
Ingredients
Cake:
2 sticks softened butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
3 large eggs at room temperature
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (300g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp orange blossom water
Glaze:
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
5 tbsp powdered sugar (may be altered up or down depending on your desired consistency
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350º F, and grease and line a 9×5 loaf pan with butter and a strip of parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar and orange zest by massaging the orange zest into the sugar with your hands until fragrant. Add in the butter and cream the two together on medium speed for at least 5 minutes until very pale and fluffy.
- While your butter and sugar cream, whisk together your flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom in a small bowl. Set to the side.
- Once your butter and sugar are light and fluffy, paddle in the eggs one at time mixing thoroughly until each has combined. Scrape down the side of your bowl.
- Whisk together buttermilk and orange blossom water together in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.
- Mix 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar until just combined, then pour in 1/2 of the buttermilk. Repeat this pattern (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry) until a combined batter forms. Do not over-mix.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake for 70-80 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out completely clean.* Let cool and enjoy.
Glaze:
1) Whisk all glaze ingredients together in a small bowl adjusting proportions to your preferred consistency. Drizzle on top of the cake once the cake has cooled.
Notes
*If the top of your cake is golden before the middle is fully cooked, place a baking sheet on the rack above your cake to shield the top from some of the oven lights and heat.
This cake keeps at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 420
- Sugar: 31g
- Sodium: 290mg
- Fat: 20.5g
- Saturated Fat: 12.3g
- Carbohydrates: 55.2g
- Fiber: 0.9g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 109mg
Keywords: pound cake, orange blossom , citrus cake, loaf cake
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