Super Moist Orange Bundt Cake with Sugar Icing

This classic orange bundt cake is incredibly moist and melts in your mouth. With a fluffy crumb and a delicate orange flavor, it is the ideal complement for an afternoon tea or for snacking at any time of the day.
Orange is such a simple yet lovely flavor and I can’t get enough of it, both in my daily diet and in my baking.
Winter is that time of year when the best oranges show up at the stores. I believe a perfect way to embrace what nature gives us is to take advantage of seasonal fruits!

For this bundt cake, I used the zest and juice of navel oranges. To cover the cake, I made a simple glaze with icing sugar and orange juice. You can also omit the glaze and serve it with a sprinkle of icing sugar. For me, one of the best combos for citrus cakes is chocolate. So if you’re feeling tempted to mix in some chocolate chips into the batter, go ahead! Or even better you could decorate it with chocolate glaze!

How do we make the orange bundt cake?

There are many techniques for mixing cake batter. In this case, we’re going to use the creaming method, which consists of beating soft butter with sugar until we get a pale and creamy paste. We can use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer. After the butter and sugar have been creamed, we add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition until the mixture is well combined. Eggs MUST be at room temperature to make sure all ingredients are emulsified. After the eggs, we are going to add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, alternating so that the ingredients are easily combined: first add half of the dry ingredients, then the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour.
When the mixture is completely combined, pour the mixture into a buttered and floured mold. If you are going to use a bundt cake pan, it is preferable to use a specific non-stick spray for this type of pan. Once the mold is filled up, tap it a few times to remove any large air bubbles and place it in a preheated oven at 180°C or 350°F. To check if it is ready, poke the cake with a toothpick after 45 minutes, if the toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs, it will be ready. Usually, this cake will take about an hour to fully bake. Remove from the oven, cool for 5 minutes, and unmold.
For the icing, we simply mix the ingredients together and drizzle immediately, once the cake has cooled.

How can we make an orange cake more fragrant?

A technique that I like to use to make citrus cakes more flavorful is to previously prepare the sugar, scenting it with the citrus aroma. For this, we simply rub the sugar with our fingers together with the orange zest. That way the zest releases the essential oils from the fruit. When the sugar is moistened by these oils, we will start feeling an intense orange scent. That’s when we know it’s ready to use. You can also prepare the sugar a day in advance, keeping it in an airtight container.

How to unmold the orange bundt cake?

If we are going to use a bundt cake mold, the unmolding step is key if we want our cake to keep the perfect shape of the mold we used.
First of all, make sure to use either a spray oil for bundt molds or butter and flour your mold thoroughly. And the most important step: Unmold the cake between 5 and 8 minutes after removing it from the oven. We should not wait for more than that to unmold, since the cake will begin to release steam, which will cause the cake to stick to the mold.

Baker’s tips

1) Use all ingredients at room temperature. This will ensure that the mixture becomes an emulsion, meaning it will be combined to perfection.
2) Always scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between every ingredient. That way we’ll make sure to combine any butter or sugar stuck in our bowl.
3) For this recipe, you can use the citrus of your choice, such as lemons, mandarines, blood oranges, etc.
4) For the glaze, you can thin it out with a little more fruit juice or water. On the contrary, it can be made denser by adding more icing sugar. Remember to use it immediately as the icing dries out quickly.

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Classic Orange Bundt Cake with Sugar Icing

Delicate and buttery, filled with orange flavor, this cake is a classic that should be included in your recipe notebook! Finish the cake with the orange icing for an extra touch of sweetness.

Yields a 10-cup bundt pan

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Cooling time1 hour hr

Total Time2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: bundt, buttermilk, cake, icing, orange

Servings: 12

Author: Lucia Paula Acevedo

Ingredients

For the bundt cake

• 300 g Unsalted butter
• 450 g White sugar
• Zest of 1 ½ oranges
• 5 Eggs
• 160 g Buttermilk
• 80 ml Orange juice
• 430 g All purpose flour
• 5 g Baking powder
• 5 g Baking soda

For the icing

• 100 g Icing sugar
• 20 g Orange juice

Instructions

For the bundt cake

• In a bowl, rub the orange zest and the sugar with your fingertips, until the sugar is filled with the orange zest’s perfume. Add the soft butter to the bowl. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time (they should be at room temperature) mixing well after each addition. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to combine everything together.
• Sift the flour with the baking powder and add half of it to the batter.
• Add the buttermilk and the orange juice to the mixture and combine.
• Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until the batter is completely homogeneous. This should take just a couple of minutes.
• Spray with oil or butter and flour a bundt cake mold. Pour the batter into the mold making sure there are no air bubbles in the batter.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C or 350°F for approximately 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Wait 5 minutes and unmold. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the icing

• For the glaze, mix the sugar with the orange juice. You can add more juice or more sugar until you achieve the desired consistency. Cover the cake with the glaze and allow it to dry before cutting.