There’s something special about the bright, tangy flavor of oranges that just makes you smile, and this super moist orange cake recipe captures that sunny essence perfectly! The cake layers are packed with orange flavor and have the most soft, tender crumb. With a delicious orange cream cheese frosting to top it all off, this citrus packed cake is sure to become a family favorite!
Why you’ll love this orange cake
There are two things which make a cake truly special – flavor and texture.
This orange cake has wonderful orange flavor, using fresh oranges only. You could add additional orange extracts or essences to the batter, but in my opinion, it really doesn’t need it. The natural orange flavor that permeates through both the cake and frosting is what truly makes this such a ‘bright’ and fun cake!
Now don’t even get me started on the texture! This orange cake truly has one of the most soft, tender crumbs I have ever come across. It’s light and fluffy (almost like a sponge cake!), and the velvety texture leaves you with a cake that literally melts in your mouth (similar to my lemon and vanilla cake recipes). IT IS INCREDIBLE!
How to make orange cake
This cake consists of two orange cake layers sandwiched between a delicious orange cream cheese frosting, adapted from my original cream cheese frosting recipe.
Orange cake
Begin by preheating your oven to 180 °C (350°F) and grease and/or line two 8 inch round cake pans (I use my homemade cake release). If using a fan function (also known as convection mode) then you will need to reduce the temperature to 160C (320F).
Sift together all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix together using a whisk or fork and set aside.
In a large bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and orange zest. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer will both work) on a medium speed, cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy. By adding in the orange zest during the creaming stage, it’ll help release more of the flavor from the orange zest.
Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between addition.
Add in milk, orange juice (freshly squeezed) and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
Add your flour mixture to your wet mixture, and using a spatula, fold until just combined. Do not overmix, so only fold until you can’t see anymore streaks of flour and the batter is uniform. If you overmix the batter, you’ll develop too much of the gluten in the flour, which will give you a dense cake.
Pour the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins. Level the tops and drop the cake tins lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Allow the cake layers to completely cool before frosting.
Orange cream cheese frosting
Cream your butter for a few minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Either use a hand mixer or stand mixer on a medium high speed. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
Add in the powdered sugar (also known as icing or confectioners’ sugar) in 3 batches while mixing on a low speed. Ensure that each batch of powdered sugar is mixed into the butter well before adding in the next batch.
Next add in the cold cream cheese, vanilla, orange zest and fresh orange juice. Mix just until the frosting is smooth. Avoid over-mixing.
How to decorate orange cake
There are so many wonderful ways you could decorate an orange cake, but here is how I decorated mine 🙂
So to start off I levelled off the tops of my cake layers so that they were nice and flat. These cake layers do bake up quite flat, so I only trimmed off a really small amount, mainly to remove the caramelised top.
I also trimmed off the caramelised edges of the cake layers. This step isn’t necessary though – I just wanted the perfect thumbnail (haha!), so you can skip it if you want 🙂
I then went ahead and placed my first cake layer in the middle of a cake stand and smoothed out some frosting on the top with my offset spatula.
I then placed the next cake layer on top, and again smoothed out some frosting on top and sides of the cake, so that the cake was completely covered. I didn’t bother doing a crumb coat (check out this video for more info on what a crumb coat is), but you can do one if you prefer. I then used my cake scraper to smooth out the sides.
Now when you scrape the sides of a cake, you usually end up with a lip of frosting around the top edges. To get rid of these and get a ‘sharp edge’ on the top, slowly bring your offset spatula into the middle of the cake, catching that lip of frosting as you go.
I then finished off by doing some piping around the top edges using a 1M piping tip.
How do you store orange cake?
This orange cake can be left at room temperature for the day, however overnight it will need to be refrigerated due to the cream cheese in the frosting. The fat and sugar in the frosting will prevent the cream cheese from going off immediately, which is why you can keep it out at room temperature for an extended period of time.
When storing, place it into an airtight container, and into the refrigerator. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.
Moist Orange Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Orange Cake
- 2¼ cups (270 g) flour - plain, all purpose (see note 1 if you want to use cake flour)
- ⅓ cup (40 g) cornstarch
- 2¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ⅓ cup (75 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 1¼ cups (250 g) white granulated sugar
- 3 tsp orange zest - see note 2
- 3 large eggs - room temperature
- 5½ tbsp (90 g) milk - room temperature, full-fat. In the video I say 90g (3/4s of a cup) but that is incorrect sorry! It should be 90g (5 1/2 tbsp) 🙂
- ½ cup (112 g) orange juice - freshly squeezed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- 4½ cups (570 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners sugar. Use more for a thicker frosting (see note 4)
- 1½ cups (335 g) cream cheese - cold, firm type (see note 5)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract/essence
- 2 tsps orange zest - see note 2
- 1½ tbsp orange juice - freshly squeezed
Instructions
Orange Cake
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) (see note 3 if using a fan function) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
- Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix together using a whisk or fork and set aside.
- In a large bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and orange zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on a medium speed, cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between addition.
- Add in milk, orange juice and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
- Add your pre-sifted dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and using a spatula, fold until just combined. Do not overmix, so only fold until you can't see anymore streaks of flour and the batter is uniform.
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins. Level the tops and drop the cake tins lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, before turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream your butter for a few minutes until it's light and fluffy. Either use a hand mixer or stand mixer on a medium high speed. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
- Add in the powdered sugar in 3 batches while mixing on a low speed. Ensure that each batch of powdered sugar is mixed into the butter well before adding in the next batch.
- Next add in the cold cream cheese, vanilla, orange zest and fresh orange juice. Mix just until the frosting is smooth. Avoid over-mixing (see note 6).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
164 Comments
Can this recipe be made in a 4in round mold? If so how long should it be baked for? Im trying to find the perfect flavour for my son’s birthday cake, we’ll never be able to taste them all if i make them in a 7in mold lol
Hi Maude! 🙂 For 4 inch rounds, you would need to half the recipe and then distribute it into four 4 inch moulds (or maybe make one 4 inch cake and use the rest of the batter for cupcakes – I wouldn’t recommend putting too much batter into one cake tin). It is quite a large quantity but reducing the batter too much (say making 1/4 of the recipe) may impact the batter 🙂
Hope that helps!
Can you also add a little bit of almond flour into it or will it change the texture of the cake completly? Have you tried it before? Thank you for replying. 🙂
Hi Niru! 🙂 I haven’t tried adding almond flour into this recipe myself, though it is likely to change the texture due to the extra fat in the almonds 🙂
The cake tasted very good. The texture, however, was anything but soft. We assume we did something wrong (mixing too long?). We’ll try again with some changes. If you know what could have caused the texture to become coarse, we’d appreciate your input
Thank you
MK (Max Klepp)
Hi Max! 🙂 So happy to hear you loved the taste of the cake, but sorry to hear it wasn’t as soft as you’d hoped! This cake should have a very soft crumb. Here are my top tips to prevent a coarse/dense cake – first, I would recommend using the gram measurements (if you didn’t already), as a little too much flour or not enough fat/sugar can cause a change in texture. Secondly, overmixing could have been an issue – you want to mix only until the ingredients are combined, and I recommend hand mixing as opposed to using an electric mixer for the last step when adding in the dry ingredients. Lastly, overcooking the cake can make it less soft, so perhaps check the cake a little earlier than the stated cooking time to ensure it isn’t overbaking. Don’t check it tooooo early though as this can cause the cake to sink 🙂
For more tips check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRy1KuFMdOo&t=4s
Hope that helps and that you have a better result next time 🙂
You are a great teacher. This looks so good.. Question can this be made in a 13×9 pan and can you substitute flavors like lemon or lime
Thank you so much Wendy 😀
Yes most of my cake recipes that require two 8 inch cake tins can be converted into 9×13 inch cakes 🙂
I haven’t tried lemon or lime myself, though it may work fine! My only reservation is that lemon and lime are quite acidic compared to orange and so that can affect the batter slightly, so it may be better trying my lemon cake recipe out for more acidic substitutions 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Can you use a bundle pan or tube pan?
Hi Lisa! 🙂 I haven’t tried either of those with this recipe myself, though I think a tube pan (you may need to half the recipe if only making one) may work better than a bundt pan as this cake does have a soft crumb and may not rise well as a tall cake. Would love to hear how you go if you decide to try it out 🙂
I want to see more of your delicious recipes!!
There’s nothing like desserts made from scratch!!
Thanks so much Bonnie! I have so many exciting recipes coming up to share with you all 😀
Appreciate all the love and support 🙂
Spectacular! Light, airy, moist. Perfect. Made it for my grandson’s birthday and it was a huge hit! I am now a loyal follower and plan to try more recipes! Thank you so much. I’m a grandma cake hero now!
Haha awesome!! So so happy to hear everyone loved the recipe and hope you enjoy the other recipes just as much 😀
Really appreciate the feedback and hope your grandson had a wonderful birthday 😀
Planning on making for Easter how many cupcakes does this make?
Hi Yuliana! This recipe will make about 24 cupcakes or so 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I made this yesterday and frosted it with your silky buttercream. Both were excellent. I will definitely use that creamy buttercream again.
Awesome! So so happy to hear you loved both recipes 😀
I made the orange cake plus the orange cream cheese icing. Both were delicious! The only thing I changed was doubling the amount of orange zest in the cake to 2 tablespoons packed zest – I like the extra orange flavour. Absolutely delicious! Moist and tender!
Awesome! So happy to hear you loved the recipe Bonnie 😀