This lovely orange cake starts with a whole orange – peel and all! The cake is perfectly balanced with just enough orange flavour and lightly sweet. You’ll love the generous layer of cream cheese icing, too!

whole orange loaf cake sliced

This cake starts with cutting up a whole orange, peel and all and whizzing it up in a blender or food processor. The orange then gets mixed with egg yolks and sugar, then flour. Finally, the egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks and folded in to the batter. Despite the addition of beaten egg whites, this is quite a sturdy cake once baked. Perfect for slicing.

I topped my cake off with a cream cheese frosting, which wasn’t part of the original recipe, but since I happened to have some cream cheese on hand, I couldn’t resist. The original used a warm glaze of icing sugar melted with orange juice, then poured over the cake at serving, which would be nice as well, I’m sure.

whole orange tea cake sliced

Cook’s Notes

As recipe was adapted from a recipe that was in grams. I’ve provided cup conversions, but if you have a scale, use the gram measurements for best accuracy.

I baked this loaf in my long, narrow tea loaf pan (it’s 4×12″) and it took about 50 minutes to cook. A 9×5″ loaf pan should also work. In any event, the batter should fill the pan just a bit over half. So obviously, note that the cooking time will vary greatly, depending on your baking pan size and shape. Watch closely and test with a cake tester regularly. The tester should come out clean.

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whole orange loaf cake sliced

Get the Recipe: Whole Orange Cake Loaf

This lovely orange cake starts with a whole orange – peel and all! The cake is perfectly balanced with just enough orange flavour and lightly sweet. You'll love the generous layer of cream cheese icing, too!
5 stars from 3 ratings
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 14 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 1 medium whole orange, (any variety, but one with thinner peel will be sweeter or thicker peel a bit more tart)
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 1 1/2 cups (300 g) white granulated sugar
  • 1 cup (220 ml) vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups (315 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder

For the cream cheese icing (optional):

  • 1/4 cup (57 g) butter, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup (44 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3 Tablespoons milk
  • 2 cups (260 g) icing/confectioners' sugar

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 300°F. Prepare a 4×12 or 9×5 loaf pan by spraying with cooking spray and lining with parchment (for easy removal).
  • Wash orange well and cut into chunks (including peel). Place orange in blender or food processor and blend until creamy. Add the egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla. Continue blending for a few minutes.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
  • Pour orange mixture into a large bowl and slowly incorporate the flour/baking powder mixture.
  • In another bowl of the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks. Gently incorporate beaten egg whites with the batter. (*Note that the batter is fairly stiff, so folding in the egg whites is a bit tricky. This is the strategy I used … if your bowl is a clock, with a spatula, slice down the centre from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock, then turning the spatula blade at an angle, scrape underneath towards 7 o’clock, lifting the batter up and over the top. Rotate bowl “one hour” and repeat until all the egg white has been incorporated.
  • Pour batter in to prepared pan. Bake at 300° F for 40-55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
  • For the icing: Combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth, adding more icing sugar as necessary for a smooth, spreading consistency. Garnish with orange zest and sprigs of thyme, if desired.
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Dessert
Author: Jennifer Maloney
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 296kcal, Carbohydrates: 57g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 53mg, Sodium: 57mg, Potassium: 155mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 39g, Vitamin A: 241IU, Vitamin C: 5mg, Calcium: 60mg, Iron: 1mg
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