Fresh orange flavor is packed into every bite of this tender glazed orange bundt cake! We use fresh orange juice and zest in the cake, syrup and glaze for bold, bright bursts of refreshing orange flavor.
I have been testing and testing an orange bundt cake recipe in every way you could imagine; I’ve made it with butter, with oil, with sour cream, without sour cream, ricotta, whole oranges, orange zest, orange juice, different glazes and then list goes on. And this is finally the recipe of all recipes.
Listen, in extensive research I found so many people insisting that bakers make the cake with whole oranges and you know what? IT’S NOT THE BETTER WAY. I wanted it to be so bad, but it led to a more dense, heavy bundt cake.
And while yes, it technically wasn’t dry, it also wasn’t light and melt-in-your-mouth moist, so I’d rather have a cake dry out two days later than start out so heavy and not as orangey all due to that white pith holding me back.
What Ingredients Do I Need for Orange Bundt Cake?
This cake recipe is broken into 3 different parts — the cake, the syrup and the glaze. Plan on using about 10-12 oranges depending on how big and juicy they are for all the fresh juice, zest and peel you will need. Here are the ingredients for each part:
Cake:
- Sugar: just regular granulated sugar
- Orange Zest: You’ll need about 2 oranges to get the zest you need. Zest adds so much bold orange flavor and rubbing it with the sugar releases the natural oil in the zest to produce even more flavor.
- Fresh Orange Juice: You’ll need 6-8 oranges to get all this fresh orange juice. You could also buy a really high quality orange juice if you want to instead of juicing oranges. Make sure it doesn’t have added sugar or the cake will end up overly sweet.
- Eggs: gives the cake structure
- Vanilla: adds flavor
- Almond Extract: adds flavor, if you aren’t an almond extract fan, just omit it
- Vegetable Oil: all cakes must have fat, and oil keeps the cake nice and moist
- Flour: just regular all purpose flour, and you’ll want to sift it into the batter
- Baking Powder: leavening agent that helps the cake rise
- Baking Soda: another leavening agent to help the cake rise and be fluffy
- Salt: enhances all the flavors
Orange Simple Syrup
- Oranges Peels: you’ll need the peel of 2 oranges and they add so much natural orange flavor to the syrup
- Fresh Orange Juice: you’ll need 3-4 oranges for this step to get the juice you need
- Water: the base of the simple syrup
- Sugar: adds sweetness and thickens the syrup
Orange Glaze
- Butter: unsalted and softened
- Powdered Sugar: adds sweetness and thickens the glaze
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