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.
165 Comments
Hi just wondering, Can you add poppyseeds? If so how much? Will i need to change anything to counteract?
Hi Allie! 🙂 I haven’t tried adding in poppyseeds myself but I don’t see why not! Maybe around 1 and 1/2 tbsp or so should do the trick and I can’t think of anything else that may need to be changed. Hope that helps and would love to hear how it goes if you decide to try it out 🙂
I’ve made this cake twice now. I think it might be the best cake I’ve ever had. Thanks for the recipe 🥹
Aww that makes me so happy Tammy! 😀 Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback, so glad you’re loving the recipe 😀
Hi~! I only have a 9-inch pan. Can I use that instead?
Hi Faye! 🙂 If making a one layer cake, then ideally one 10 inch pan would be best for 1x this recipe. A 9-inch pan may work too, but you will likely need to bake the cake longer (if all the batter is in one tin) and it may not rise as much. You’ll also likely only need about half of the frosting 🙂
If baking with two 9 inch pans, then the cake layers will be slightly thinner than the original recipe and will bake up a bit faster so just check them a bit earlier to ensure they don’t overbake.
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
How many oranges to vest
Hi Tanika! 🙂 1 large orange should do the trick, but I do recommend measuring out the zest once grated 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
First off, the cake and frosting were so delicious. I think I messed something up, though. When I added orange juice & milk, it appeared to sort of curdle. I mixed it up the best I could, and it seemed fine to eat, so I baked it anyway. cake came out very dense, sort of scone-like. Is it the curdling that caused this? And how do I avoid this?
Hi Amber! 🙂 So glad to hear you enjoyed the taste of the cake and frosting, but sorry to hear you had some trouble with the cake batter! When adding in the milk and orange juice, it’s okay if the batter looks a bit curdled, however once the dry ingredients are added in the batter should no longer be curdled 🙂
If it is still curdled, it’s likely because one or more of the ingredients were too cold (such as the milk, eggs or butter). I would recommend using room temp ingredients. With the cake being dense, may I ask if you used one cake tin or two? If using one cake tin, it’s likely due to too much batter being in one cake tin. If it was more scone-like though, it indicates that maybe there was too much flour in the batter or the batter was overmixed. For best results, I would recommend using the gram measurements (if you didn’t already) as often dry ingredients can be over-measured when using cup measurements 🙂
For more tips, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRy1KuFMdOo
Hope that helps for next time Amber 🙂
Is this cake stable enough for a four layer cake?
I don’t have fridge space. If assembled the night before and served the next afternoon, will the frosting hold, or will it become watery and slide off?
What can I do to stabilize the cream?
Hi Eleni! 🙂
It should be okay as a four layer cake, although I would recommend only using the cream cheese frosting as a filling with a more stable frosting on the outside to ensure the cake layers don’t slide 🙂
You could add more powdered sugar to the cream cheese frosting to make it more stable, but it does make the frosting sweeter so just keep that in mind 🙂
I baked this cake for a celebration with almost 25 persons, and there where no left crumbs! Everyone enjoyed it 😊 I can’t thank you enough for sharing this recipe, and the dedication that you put on writing with easy-to-follow and clear instructions not just written, but also in your videos.
I’d like to add that the first recipe of yours that I tried was your eggless chocolate cake, It wasn’t just a huge success at the birthday party of my friend that requested me a chocolate cake, but the amaze of my mother and grandma (and myself included) by how nice looking, and really delicious an eggless cake could look, it was mind-blowing 😂
Thank you so much, and blessings to you and your family 🙏🏻
Aww yay! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback Priscila 😀 so happy you enjoyed the orange and eggless chocolate cakes and that you’re finding the instructions and videos easy to follow. Really appreciate the support 🙂
The corn starch amount can’t possibly be correct, is it? i.e. how may tablespoons is 40 grams?
Hi Sarah! 🙂 Cornstarch is very light – 1/3 cup is just over 5 tbsp and 1 tbsp of cornstarch is about 7g 🙂
Nonetheless, I would always recommend sticking to the gram measurements as those are the exact quantities I use. Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
This recipe looks fantastic. I just received a request to make an orange cake for 60-75 people. Can you tell me how to adapt this recipe to that size cake. Not only multiplying it, but what size pan, and how long to bake in that size. I’m just a home baker, but do make lots of cakes for the grandkids, just never for so many people. Thank you!
Thanks so much Louise! 🙂 Oohh good question! I haven’t made a large cake in a very long time, but if making sheet cakes then I think three sheet cakes should be enough (so you would make 3x this recipe and distribute it between three 9×13 inch sheet cakes). For sheet cakes, the cake will likely bake a bit faster so I would check them about 5-10 mins earlier than the stated cook time. If making a layer cake, then you would probably need to make a 10 inch 3 layer cake (and cut into smaller coffee serves). Again, you would need to make 3 times the recipe and distribute it between three larger 10 inch cake tins 🙂
Hope that helps and all the best with it Louise! 🙂
Assalamualaikum
Can’t wait to try the orange cake recipe but was just wondering if I omit the salt and use salted butter instead will that be ok or will it change the texture of the cake ?
Wassalaam Jenab! 🙂 Yes you could totally do that. It shouldn’t change the texture of the cake 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!