Orange Spice Cake

Locale: French

Source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking With Dorie

Serves: 10

Ingredients

  • 1.5 c all-purpose flour
  • 1.25 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 0.5 tsp fine sea salt
  • 1.25 c sugar
  • 1 large orange or 2 tangerines or clementines
  • 4 large eggs, at room temp
  • 0.5 c heavy cream, at room temp
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 5.5 tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the glaze (optional)

  • 1/3 c marmalade
  • 0.5 tsp water

Steps

  1. Heat oven to 350F. Butter an 8.5-inch loaf pan, and dust with flour.

  2. Whisk flour, baking powder, cardamom, ginger and salt together.

  3. Put sugar in a large bowl. Grate the orange zest over it. Rub the sugar and zest together. Squeeze 3 tbs juice from the fruit and set aside.

  4. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking after each. Whisk in the juice, followed by the heavy cream. Gently stir in the dry ingredients, in 2 additions. Stir the vanilla and melted butter in. Scrape batter into the pan.

  5. Bake for 70-75 minutes, until a probe comes out clean. The top will probably have cracked. Transfer to a rack, and let rest 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, then invert the pan, and turn the cake right side up.

  6. Glaze is optional, but use it while cake is still hot. Bring marmalade and water to a boil. Brush the glaze over the top of the warm cake. Allow it to set at room temp. The glaze will remain slightly tacky.

Notes

  1. I added some extra spices I use in spice cakes: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg (maybe not the nutmeg).

  2. I also had a jar of candied orange slices I must have been saving for just this occasion. I chopped them up and added them. Not sure whether the bits affected the cooking time, because: although the cake seemed to test out fine, the center collapsed and remained doughey inside. It tasted fine.

  3. I did find some marmalade for the glaze.

Log

  1. 2025-10-25: