Perk up Spring with Orange Zest!
Take a break from lemon with this Orange Zest Bundt Cake this Spring.
An easy and delicious cake for the Easter season, I love this Orange Bundt Cake, another show stopper with it's cream cheese and extra orange zest on top. Plus, there's even some orange zest baked into the top of the Bundt. Sprinkle the cream cheese frosting with orange and add some around the base of the cake.
This recipe is for a 6 cup Bundt cake. I'm so happy that I found these smaller pans so I can easily experiment with different flavors and ingredients on a smaller cake, rather than with a larger one. I've found that when a person experiments with creating different recipes, there can be a good amount of finished product that may get tossed out due to incorrect amounts of leavening products, or too strong a flavor added or too many other ingredients added such as fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc. Making test cakes in a smaller container helps cuts the losses, and still enjoy the winners.
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
Prepare the 6 Cup Bundt pan:
- Brush softened butter all over the inside of the pan, making sure to cover all the crooks and crannies.
- Dust flour with a small sieve all over the buttered inside of the pan, tapping the pan to distribute the flour well. It needs to cover the entire inside of the pan, or some of the cake could separate and break apart when the pan is flipped over to pop the cake out onto a platter.
- Tip the pan upside down over the trash and tap it to dislodge any excess flour. If there is too much flour, it will adhere to the surface of the cake, giving it an unpleasant appearance.
- Sprinkle some extra orange zest in the bottom of the pan so when the cake has cooled and popped out of the pan, the baked zest will be on the top for extra flavor.
Ingredients for 6 Cup Lemon Zest Bundt Cake:
1 1/4 C Flour
1/4 t Salt
1/4 Baking powder
1/2 C Sour cream
1 t Vanilla extract
1 T Orange zest
1 T Orange juice
1/2 C Butter, softened
1 1/8 C Sugar
2 Eggs, large, room temperature
Make the cake:
- Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Whisk together the sour cream, vanilla extract, orange zest and orange juice in a small bowl and set aside.
- Cream the eggs and butter together until they are mixed well.
- Alternately add the eggs/butter mixture and sour cream mixture into the flour dry mixture, stirring well after each addition. Thoroughly mix together.
- Before you pour the batter in the buttered and flour dusted pan, be sure you have sprinkled some extra orange zest in the bottom. Then, pour in the batter.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350F degrees. I check the cake at 45 minutes via the clean toothpick test. (Stick the toothpick in the thickest part of the cake. If the toothpick is clean when you pull it out, the cake is done. If not, bake it a few more minutes until you get a clean toothpick.
- Let the cake cool 10-15 minutes on a rack.
- Loosen the sides with a small thin plastic utensil. I use the narrow end of a soft plastic orange peeler.
- Tip the pan upside down over a flat platter and it should come out cleanly. Don't despair if it doesn't come out clean. Just pop out the errant chunks from the pan and insert into their matching spots on the cake. Maybe use a little frosting to hold them in place.
Decorating or frosting:
- This cake has so much flavor it doesn't need much for frosting. Simply dust it with powdered sugar.
- HOWEVER, if you like frosting, try a lemon or orange flavored cream cheese frosting with orange zest sprinkled lightly on top.
- Sprinkle orange zest around the base of the cake.
Options:
- If you don't have any sour cream, go ahead and substitute 1:1 yogurt or mayonnaise. I've even mixed them if I have some sour cream but not enough.
- If you want to make a larger Bundt cake, just double the recipe and use a prepared 12 cup Bundt pan to bake it in.
Storage:
- I keep the unfrosted cake covered with a big bowl or cake keeper on my kitchen counter for up to 5 days.
- If it's frosted I'll keep it in fridge for up to a week. But, it normally does not last that long with "gremlins" loose in our home.
- Frozen, it will keep up to a month or more, frosted or unfrosted.
Bundt cakes are the easiest cakes to make. Once I figured out how to get them out of the pan without breaking them apart (liberally slather butter in the pan and dust it with flour to prevent any problems) I have probably made scads of them for home, family, special dinners, birthdays, special events like Halloween and Christmas, fund-raisers, and more. I love to experiment with different flavors, making marshmallow fluff to layer them with and different frostings and decorations. I've even turned them into pumpkin cakes, just make two and stack them so they take on a pumpkin shape. Then frost and decorate. And, you don't need to invest in a lot of different Bund cake shapes, even there are some beautiful ones out there. I have invested in few different sizes over the years, including 6 cup, 10 cup and 12 cup pans to accommodate different size events.
The main thing is to have fun making these delicious cakes and "Bake your own Memories!"