Orange Loaf Cake Recipe

This orange loaf cake recipe is extremely simple and is made with easily available ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, milk, yogurt, orange zest, orange juice. I guarantee you that you are going to taste orange in every bite of it. This cake gets its unique flavor from orange zest and orange juice.

You can enjoy this cake at anytime of the day, weather it is for breakfast or with afternoon tea or as a dessert after dinner.

What is “Orange Loaf Cake” ?

Orange loaf cake is tea time cake made with orange juice and orange zest as main ingredients and it is prepared in loaf pan, so is the name. As this orange loaf cake is covered with orange glaze, you will taste orange flavor in every bite of the cake. In short, it is full of orange flavor :).

This homemade orange loaf cake is adapted from my lemon pound cake. Me and my family loves the citrus flavors in our desserts. They are not too sweet and breaks the taste with citrus flavor which makes it even more delicious. This is the reason we always eat our chocolate layer cake with strawberry compote.

Weather you are beginner or pro baker, this recipe is perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth. I have tried this orange loaf cake plain or with orange glaze on top. I would highly recommend to top it up with orange glaze for bursting orange flavor in every bite.

If you don’t want to use orange glaze then you can relish it as is or sprinkle some simple powdered sugar on top and enjoy.

Let’s not wait any further and gets started! Recipe contains step by step instructions along with lots of tips to make perfect orange loaf cake every single time.

Why this is the best orange loaf cake

1. Easy to follow recipe with easily available ingredients.
2. Bursting with orange flavor.
3. Can be made ahead of time.
4. Moist, tender and melts in your mouth.

How to make orange loaf cake? (overview)

This blog contain the detailed step-by-step instructions for orange loaf cake with images but let’s take a overview of how it is prepared before we start.

Sr. No.	Steps
1	Mix and sift all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2	Cream butter and sugar.
3	Add all the we ingredients and mix well.
4	Alternate dry ingredients with milk and orange juice mixture
5	Bake, decorate with orange glaze and Enjoy.

Orange loaf cake recipe – ingredients

Ingredients for Orange Glaze

• Icing sugar – Use regular icing sugar or confectioners sugar. If you do not have it handy, you can make powdered sugar at home.

• Orange Juice – As the name suggests this is the hero in orange glaze recipe. I would recommend to use homemade orange juice instead of using store bought as store bought contains additional sugar which we do not want.

• Orange Zest – This is another star ingredient in this orange cake. As I mentioned before, orange zest is the outer peel of orange. Just use regular grater or box grater to make the zest. I prefer to use box grater as it is easy to hold.

Ingredients for orange loaf cake

• All-purpose flour – This holds all ingredients together and gives stru ture to the cake. I would not recommend to replace it with cake flour as it may turn dry.

• Baking powder – Works as leavening agent, i.e. this makes the cake fluffy and rice properly. This basically reacts with orange juice which created carbon dioxide which in turn helps the orange cake to rise. Please make sure to measure it appropriately.

• Salt – As I always say, salt enhances the dessert flavor. Almost all of dessert recipes contains tiny amount of salt, but it makes huge difference. I always prefer to control the quantity of salt so I prefer to use unsalted butter but if you ran out of it then you can use regular butter but skip out the salt in recipe.

• Unsalted butter – Butter is an important ingredient in any cake recipe. It adds rich flavors, moistness to baked goods. I highly recommend to use butter and not oil for the best mouthfeel of orange cake. You can use unsalted butter of any of your favorite brands.

• Sugar – Any regular cake is incomplete without sugar. If you want to bake sugar free cake, then it’s a different story altogether :). I have used regular caster sugar here, nothing fancy.

• Eggs – Eggs works as a binder which in turn gives structure to the orange cake. Use large sized eggs. Large sized eggs weighs around 50-52 gms. If you have small sized then break the eggs, beat them and weigh them using weighing scale. If there is any leftovers, use them to make omlette 🙂

• Orange zest – Orange zest is nothing but outer peel of orange. Orange zest adds intense flavor and aroma to the cake. DO NOT skip.

• Vanilla extract – Use pure vanilla extract or vanilla imitation, anything which is available in your pantry. Pure vanilla extract will give ultimate flavor you are looking for undoubtedly.

• Orange Juice – As the name suggests this is the star of recipe undoubtedly. Orange juice reacts with leavening agent used in this recipe which is baking powder. This helps the cake to rise evenly and properly.

• Milk – This makes the cake moist. I have used regular full fat milk. Inhale not tried using 2% or non fat milk so I would not recommend that.

• Yogurt – I have added regular full-fat yogurt in this recipe which makes the cake moist and tender. You can also use greek yogurt instead of full-fat. . If you used greek yogurt then add a tablespoon of orange juice or milk to balance the moisture. I would not recommend to use low-fat or no-fat as it does not contain the percentage f fat we needed for our recipe.

Tools needed

1. Measuring cups
2. Measuring spoons
3. Weighing scale
4. Loaf Pan
5. hand mixer or stand mixer
6. Grater

Step-by-step instructions to make homemade orange loaf cake recipe

Instructions for orange glaze

1. In a bowl, add all ingredients (1.5 cup (188 gms) icing sugar, 3 tbsp (45 ml) orange juice, 1 tsp (5 gms) orange zest) in a bowl.

2. Mix everything together using whisk and your orange glaze is ready to pour over orange loaf cake. It should be in pourable consistency and should not be thick. If it is thick then add 1/2 tsp of orange juice, mix and check again.

Please note I have a separate detailed blog for Orange glaze. Please have a look for all the details.

Instructions for orange loaf cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) and line up the loaf pan with parchment paper. You can also use butter and flour method which is coating the pan with butter first and then with flour.

2. In a bowl, sift all dry ingredients (2 cups (240 gms) all-purpose flour, 1.5 tsp (7.5 gms)baking powder and 1/2 tsp (2.5 gms) salt) and keep it aside.

3. Now, in a separate bowl, mix room temperature (1/2 cup (120 ml)) milk and (3 tablespoon (45 ml)) orange juice and keep it aside.

4. Add softened unsalted butter and sugar to the bowl and start beating. You can use hand mixer or stand mixer whichever you like. Beat on low-medium speed until it is light, fluffy and pale in color. This would take 3-4 minutes with stand mixer. Please scrape in between and beat again.

5. Add eggs, one at a time. Make sure you have room temperature eggs so that it gets mixed properly. If you forgot to take it out, just keep in bowl of tapped hot water for 5 minutes and you are good to go. Make sure to beat until it is just combined.

6. Now add orange zest, yogurt, vanilla extract and beat just for few seconds.

7. Now add dry ingredients with milk and orange juice mixture. Add dry ingredients in 3 portions and milk+orange juice mixture in 2 portions. Beat it until it is just mixed or you see last streak of flour. DO NOT overmix.

8. Pour the orange cake loaf batter in prepared loaf pan.

9. Bake at 350F(180c) for 45-55 minutes. Once it is out of oven, keep in the loaf pan for 10-15 minutes or till you can touch the loaf pan with bare hands.

10. Remove from loaf pan and completely cool the cake on wire rack.

11. Decorate with powdered sugar or orange glaze.

12. Slice the loaf cake after 10-15 minutes. This is just to settle the orange glaze.

13. Enjoy!

Orange loaf cake – storing and freezing instructions

Storing and freezing instructions are quite similar to any other cake.

Storing instructions – orange loaf cake

it is very important to cool the cake completely before you store it. There are chances of fungus if it is packed warm.

You can keep the cake at room temperature or in refrigerator or in freezer. Just make sure you are storing it in air tight container or ziploc bag.

You can store at room temperature for 3-4 days, in refrigerator for 1-1.5 weeks and approximately 2 months in freezer.

if you keep in refrigerator then bring it to room temperature (this might take couple of hours) or microwave the cake slice just for 8-10 seconds.

Freezing instructions – orange loaf cake

You can easily make this orange cake in advance and freeze it. I would recommend to freeze entire cake instead of individual slices.

Wrap the cake with plastic wrap first and then cover it with aluminum foil.

You can easily freeze the cake for 2 months. Thaw it overnight in refrigerator and Enjoy 😉.

Sr. No.	Storage Type	Days/Weeks/Months
1	Room Temperature	3-4 days
2	Refrigerator	1-1.5 weeks
3	Freezer	2 Months

Any substitutes?

Yogurt or Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt – You can replace yogurt with sour cream in 1:1 ratio. You can also use greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt but as greek yogurt contains less moisture increase the quantity of orange juice by 1 tablespoon.

Secret tips to make the best orange loaf cake every time

• Read the recipe – I would highly recommend to read the complete recipe along with ingredients and detail steps before you start the recipe. What if we require cold butter instead of soft? What if we require room temperature eggs and we have not taken the eggs out?

• Measure ingredients properly – Baking is a science so few ingredients here and there may ruin the recipe. I would highly recommend using weighing scale over measuring cups. I have mentioned the quantities in both units in recipe card.

• Cream butter and sugar – Creaming butter and sugar together will incorporate air to the batter which helps with cake texture. It should be light, fluffy, pale in color and increased in volume. It should take 3-4 minutes with hand mixer with the quantities mentioned here.

• Do not overmix – Overmixing the cake batter will turn into dry, dense cake. Overmixing will incorporate too much air in to the batter due to which it loses moisture when it is baking. Also, overmixing will develop gluten which will make dense cake.

• Do not remove from pan when hot – There is a chance that cake will break if you try to take it out immediately once it is out of oven. Let it sit in loaf pan for 10 to15 minutes or till the time you can easily touch the pan.

• Cool the cake – It is very important to cool the orange cake completely before applying orange glaze or powdered sugar. If cake is warm, glaze or sugar will melt and will add too much moisture to the cake which may create fungus. So, please make sure to cool it over wire rack.

How are we making (video) ?

Orange loaf cake – FAQ’s

• Why is my orange loaf cake dry? – There can be multiple reasons behind dry cake. Overmixing the matter, less moisture, quantity of all-purpose flour are few of them. I would highly recommend to measure your ingredients using weighing scale as it gives perfect results. Also, mix the dry ingredients until just combined.

• Can I make this orange cake without eggs? – I have not tried by replacing the eggs yet. Please let me know if you give it a try :)/

• How do I store my orange loaf cake? – You can store at room temperature, in refrigerator or in freezer. Please follow my storing and freezing instructions for more details.

• Can I make the orange cake ahead of time? – Absolutely. You can easily make this ahead of time and store. In my opinion, cake always tastes better after a day it is baked.

• How to serve orange cake? – You can serve the orange cake as it is or top it with orange glaze. You can also sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.

• Can I use store bought orange juice? – You can use store bought orange juice but make sure it doesn’t contain additional sugar. If it contains, make sure to reduce the sugar by 1 to 2 teaspoons (10 to 15 gms) otherwise it will be too sweet.

Request

Now it is your turn to make this orange loaf cake 🙂 Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! I really love hearing from you, and your feedback is very much important to me.

If you post the orange loaf cake recipe to Instagram, do not forget to tag me. Tag @DessertKatta or Hashtag it #DessertKatta

Recipe Card