This lovely orange loaf 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!
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.
Recipe tips!
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.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
This orange loaf cake is best enjoyed within 24 hours of baking. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for another day or two.
For longer storage, wrap well and freeze up to 3 months.
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Get the Recipe: Whole Orange Loaf Cake
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, or similar neutral-tasting cooking 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. (not fan-assisted). Prepare a 4×12 or 9×5 loaf pan by spraying it with cooking spray and lining it 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 into 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.
Notes
More orange cake recipes to love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Love this cake. I made it today for my dad birthday and everyone was in love! I added about 1/4 of an orange more to the mix and for the icing I followed your recipe and added about 3/4 tsp orange juice and zest from half an orange and it was lovely!
Sounds perfect, Jasmine! Thanks :)
My husband and I love this recipe! It is definitely one of our go-to desserts for parties, etc. We tried the recipe with a grapefruit as well and it was just as delicious!
So glad you are enjoying it Jillian :) I must try it with grapefruit!
Oh I love when we get to use the WHOLE piece of fruit (or vegetable) in recipe. I have a whole orange cake that I make and it’s just fantastic. Definitely surprised that this isn’t pink. I would have thought for sure. Still gorgeous, none the less!
Thanks Liz. There’s no doubt the whole orange gave this cake some great flavour. I loved it!
What a scrumptious cake, I love that nice layer of cream cheese frosting!
Thanks so much, Laura :)
That is so interesting–I guess you never know what you might find in an obscure forum! So cool that you found this recipe, it looks delicious :)
Thanks June. It really was delicious. I can’t stop nibbling at it ;)
Apparently I need to check out foreign baking forums too! So much to learn. When I was living in Sicily I used to spend hours watching Italian cooking shows – so a forum is the perfect substitute! Also, this tea cake is so delicious looking. I really love the flavour!
Thanks Katrina and you should! It can be challenging relying on Google translate and often they leave out things that I assume everyone (except me ;) knows, but I love a challenge!
This cake looks incredible! And I absolutely love the bright whites and pops of colors in the photos – so many summer vibes! Plus that cream cheese icing – spot on. :)
Thanks so much, Alexandra :)
Absolutely stunning, and I love how much frosting you loaded on, I want to grab a slice right off my screen. Blood orange is funny to bake with, the color always comes out differently. The flavor is so mellow and unique, I wish they were around all year long!
Thanks Sue. I love blood oranges, too and yes, I hate to skimp on icing :)
What a stunning teacake, Jennifer! Blood oranges are simply stunning to me, and I love the fact that it’s a foreign recipe! It’s like a foreign movie where you feel more cultured just by being in its presence… right?
Thanks Sarah and yes, so true!
This is beautiful – and I’m surprised too that the middle wasn’t pink. So interesting that you include the entire blood orange, I bet that gave this cake amazing flavor!
Thanks Jessica. And yes, I’m not sure where the pink went :) I loved this cake. It had such a great orange flavour.
This is such a stunning cake! It would look absolutely gorgeous on my table for brunch, but I doubt it would last long enough for everyone to really appreciate it’s beauty. Too delish!
Thanks Meghan. It really is a delicious cake!