Sticky Orange Cake Recipe

Some cakes just scream of summer at the top of their lungs, bursting with zing and fresh flavours with more zip and bounce in them than a field full of summer bunnies.  This is one such a cake.  It is so packed full of fresh orange juice that if you close your eyes and squint at it, you could almost (almost) convince yourself that it was actually good for you.

It’s not, but isn’t it nice to eat something that tastes like it should be?

This is the kind of cake that begs to be taken on lazy Sunday picnics to the beach or the woods where you can while away the afternoon lying comatose in the sunshine engrossed in a good book or just laughing away the hours with good friends.

It is light and moist and the syrup really does make this a case of sticky fingers most munching’s!  It also happens to be very quick and ridiculously easy to make as well.  I first came across this recipe and immediately that I had to try it out, with some tweaks and adaptations.

You need:

For the cake

175 grams self-raising flour
175 grams caster sugar
175 grams butter
5 tablespoons milk
2 medium eggs
1 large orange (grated zest of, save the juice for the syrup)
Teaspoon cinnamon
Teaspoon allspice

For the syrup

75 grams caster sugar
1 large orange (juice of, use the zest in the cake)

For the icing

100g icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 large orange (grated zest of)

Grease a medium loaf tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Put the flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and orange zest into a large mixing bowl. Whisk until all the ingredients are incorporated (I use an electric whisk but you can do it with a manual one, it just takes some time and some sweat!)

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin (try and resist the urge to eat the leftover cake mix, it’s hard as it tastes really good!) and bake for 40-45 mins, until risen and golden.  The top may crack slightly but don’t worry!  When a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake it is done.

When the cake has just about 5-10 mins left in the oven, heat the syrup ingredients together in a small saucepan. Remove the cake from the oven and make some holes in the top with a skewer.  Pour over the syrup, making sure to cover the whole cake (while the cake is still in the tin) and leave until the cake is completely cold.

Ease the cake from the sides of the tin with a knife before trying to remove it from the tin and turn it out onto a tray.  Mix the icing ingredients together, adding more milk or more icing sugar if the consistency isn’t to your liking.  I find it works best as a thick pouring consistency.

Ice the cake haphazardly and scatter with the orange zest.  It should keep for a day or so in an air tight container.

This guest post was written by Miscriant; a Kent based lifestyle blogger.  You can find her at miscriant.blogspot.com !