Fragrant, moist, and tender Orange Pound Cake flavored with freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest. Perfect for snack time or tea time.
All baking careers have to start somewhere. Mine actually began with this Lemon Poppy Seed Braid, before moving on to this Orange Pound Cake. Known simply as Orange Cake in our family, this is my Dad’s favorite cake. He often spoke about his eldest sister, my oldest aunt’s orange cake and never failed to mention that it should be made with only a particular brand of butter.
Type of Butter
SCS butter, considered as the premium butter in Malaysia and Singapore, was often used in baked goods. It was one of creamiest butter in that part of the world. On that principle, I look for the creamiest butter I can find here at my local grocery store. In Minnesota, there is no shortage of good creamy butter as we are milk country. I use Land O’Lakes butter for my baking and I think dad will be quite pleased with this Orange Pound Cake. 🙂
Aunt made her Orange Pound Cake in a round cake tin but I like to use a loaf pan. I prefer the narrower 8-in x 4-in x 2-in pan or the European 25cm pan for a “taller” cake.
Tools Used in Making This Orange Pound Cake
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• Hamilton Beach Power Deluxe Hand Mixer
• KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus Series Stand Mixers – Metallic Chrome
• Microplane Gourmet Series Stainless Steel Coarse Grater
• Hand Juicer Citrus Orange Squeezer Manual Lid Rotation Press Reamer
• Stainless Steel 5 Inch Fine Mesh Flour Sifter
Fragrant, moist, and tender Orange Pound Cake flavored with freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest. Perfect for snack time or tea time.
- 1¾ cup all-purpose flour (265g)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda *
- 1¼ sticks butter (softened) ** (2/3 cup/141g)
- ¾ cup sugar (165g)
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup milk *** (120ml)
- 3 oz orange juice (90ml)
- Zest from 1 orange
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Grease and flour an 8-in x 4-in loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
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Sift all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda into a medium sized bowl.
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Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. This will take about 2 to 3 minutes.
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Beat in eggs, one at a time until combined.
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Add half the flour mixture, half of the milk, and half of the orange juice. Beat on low speed. Then add remaining flour mixture, milk, and orange juice. Continue to beat until combine.
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Fold in orange zest.
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Pour batter into prepared pan.
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Bake for 55 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove and cool on wire rack.
Based on feedback that the cake was a little too dense, I have retested the recipe to make it lighter. It appears that there is too much liquid in the batter and so I have made these changes.
* Added ¾ tsp baking soda to neutralize some of the acid in the orange juice.
** Reduce the amount of butter down to 1¼ sticks (2/3 cup/141g) from 1½ sticks (¾ cup/170g).
*** Reduce the amount of milk down to ½ cup (120ml) from ¾ cup (180ml).
This cake recipe is really versatile. The flavorings can easily be substituted with almost whatever takes your fancy. This Raspberry Swirl Cream Cheese Cake used basically the same ingredients and it turned out just as moist and delicious! Do give it a try.
Manual Orange Juicer
Many have asked about the Manual Orange Juicer I used in the video. This juicer was an employee gift made specially for the company I used to work for over 20 years ago. To this day, it is the only citrus juicer I use. Fortunately, I found a similar one on Amazon. Here is my affiliate link if you are interested –> Manual Orange Juicer.
Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎
This cake sure looks moist with tender crumbs. I love orange flavour in my bakings. Wish I could have a piece for my breakfast now. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Minty! Oranges are one of the most fragrant and easily available flavorings for baked goods. Love them!
Your Orange Pound Cake looks absolutely delicious!
Thank you! 🙂
Can I replace the butter with oil?
Thanks
Maria.
I’ve not tried it with this particular cake but I am quite sure you can.
Wow! I bet your dad would be so proud of this cake. It looks incredibly moist. I’m thinking it might even be fabulous toasted with a cup of tea.
Thanks Lynn! I will make and bring one to him the next time I visit. This cake is fabulous with a cup of tea. 🙂
I really really want to know what your dad said about it!!!!!
Really? 🙂 Well, Dad is in Malaysia and so he hasn’t tried this cake yet. I am planning to bake one and bring it to him when I visit. 🙂
Your recipe calls for 1 1/2 butter, then it says 3/4 cp butter. I added 3 stick butter and I told myself this is way to much butter. By watching the video you added 3/4 cup butter instead of 1 1/2 butter. Which is the right measurement? Will see how the pond cake turns out, it’s in the oven right now.
The recipe clearly states 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup / 170g) i.e. 1 1/2 STICKS = 3/4 cup = 170g butter. The alternative measurements are in brackets. I provide the different measurements because some people prefer to go by sticks, others use cups, and some go metric. 3 sticks of butter is way too much butter.
Hi, my only loaf pan is about 6×12 in. and quite deep. Do you think double batch would fit in?
Wow…that’s a huge loaf pan! I calculated the volume of your pan and I think a double batch would work.
have mine in the oven now 🙂 fingers crossed 🙂 i love how you have both measuring units, it might be nothing for most people but for me it saves a lot of time calculating from cups to grams so thank you for that 🙂
I am glad to hear you find the metric measuring units helpful. 🙂
I came across this recipe on Pinterest.
I Just made this pound cake, as in it literally just came out of the oven! I followed the amended directions and since I have no self control I sliced myself a piping hot slice. Wow! The cake was light and airy and the orange flavor really came through. I really enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so mcuh.
You are welcome and thank you for coming back to let me know. I am glad the recipe turned out well for you. It is our favorite pound cake. 🙂
Dear Linda,
I tried your recipe yesterday and boy! did my husband and I enjoyed it! It was moist and fragrant! Love love love it do much.
Very glad to hear you and your husband enjoyed the recipe. This is one of our favorite cakes. 🙂
Linda, I love this recipe. I love pound cakes. I’ve made this one several times and is always wonderful but (you know the had to be a but) sometimes it comes out of the oven looking beautiful and then falls duting the cooling. In fact many of my pound cakes do that? Any business ti keep the perfect raised top?? Thank you for sharing this receipe with us!
Pound cake can be tricky sometimes especially when citrus juice is used. That is why it is important to add the flour, milk, and orange juice in two batches. Some have also said that it could be due to over beating.
Turned out to be the best recipe…i tried so many orange pound cake recipes..this one turned out to be bang on…so fragrant…
Thank you for the compliment. I am glad you enjoyed the recipe.