Joy the Baker

Whole Orange Bundt Cake

by 85 Comments

So much of our kitchen experience involves throwing parts of food into the trashcan, right?  I hate that part.  Because I hate it, I have an entire bag full of onion tops and skins in my freezer for a future vegetable or chicken stock that will happen as soon as I need that freezer space for something more important.  

I’ve also started to compost with great abandon.  Notice that I said with great ‘abandon’ not with great success.  Learning… I’m learning. 

Because I hate to waste, I absolutely LOVE a recipe that uses the whole of something.  You know… a recipe that uses both beets and their greens, carrots and their tops, ORANGES AND THEIR PEEL!  

You can see the orange peel bits in the crumb of this cake.  The juice and flesh of the orange will moisten and flavor the cake.  The peel adds a really lovely textural element and a surprising lightly bitter bite.  It’s so satisfying – making for a long-life, under-a-cake-dome, visitor’s coffee cake.  

Oh what’s this casual pile of cake on the counter?  Mine all mine – with plenty to share, probably.

Here’s what we’ll need for this WHOLE ORANGE CAKE!  

  •  Whole oranges. Since we’re using the orange, pith + peel and all, it’s important to use thin-skinned oranges.  Navel oranges can be thin-skinned (give them a squeeze). And try Cara Cara oranges, too!
  • Butter and sour cream for the cake batter.
  • 4 large eggs for the cake batter. 
  • AND! Brown sugar, flour, and lots of spices for the coffee cake style crumble  

First we’ll slice all of the oranges into large chunks.  

See if there are any seeds sneaking around in the oranges.  Get those outta there.  

All of the oranges go into a food processor fitted with a blade attachment.  

We’ll pulse to start, then process all of the orange bits to a thick and chunky paste.  It won’t be completely smooth and that’s ok.  The mixture will moisten the batter and give it texture, too!

This is a trust-the-process moment.

We’ll measure 1 1/2 cups of the orange mixture into a measuring cup.

Depending on the size of the oranges, you may only need 2 oranges instead of 3.  See how it goes! 

The cake batter comes together first by creaming together butter and sugar.  

The butter is softened to room temperature and the sugar is granulated.  

Beat on low speed, with the paddle attachment, until the mixture looks pale and fluffy.  It actually will look fluffy!  Just give it some time.  I’d say a good five minutes.  

Eggs.  One at a time.  Incorporated for one full minute before another egg is added.  

This may feel like a step you can skip, but don’t! Incorporating the eggs thoughtfully helps them do the good work of stabilizing and the cake rise to great heights.  

After the eggs, vanilla extract! 

Let’s get these dry ingredients going:  

Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – lightly whisked together in a bowl so they can get to know each other before they formally meet the cake batter.   

Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture.

Give it a mix on low speed just until the flour is lightly incorporated. 

Add all of the orange matter, along with the sour cream to the thickening cake batter.

Again, give it a low speed mix to incorporate it juuuust so. 

We’ll finish by adding the remainder of the dry ingredients, beating on low speed to incorporate.  

Are you seeing a theme here?  

I like to stop the mixer and scape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.  There’s always a pocket of dry ingredients hiding in there.  Finish with a fast burst on the mixer to fully incorporate and finish the batter. 

The batter will be thick.  We’re doing dang great!

I love a crumble in a cake:  flour and brown sugar and spices.  That layer of flavor is just a nice surprise. 

We’ll add butter to our spiced crumble and work it together with our fingers. 

Some big chunks of butter and the mixture will the sandy.  

Half of the batter makes its way into a greased and floured pan.  Spread evenly.  

Top with more than half of the crumble mixture and use a butterknife to swirl cake batter over the crumble.  Mixed but not too mixed, ya know? 

Top with the remaining batter.  

And say yes to more crumble on top (which will end up being the bottom of the cake).  Swirl the crumble into the batter for the last time. 

Bake the cake for a good 45 to 55 minutes.  To test the cake, insert a toothpick.  If it comes out with a few moist crumbs, the cake is likely done.  If the toothpick comes out with wet batter, give it some more time in the oven.  

One of life’s great mysteries:  when to invert the bundt cake from the pan to a wire rack.  

Right?

I’ve had the most success with allowing the cake to cook to juuuust warm.  Certainly not hot and not completely cooled.  Run a knife along the end of the pan in the space between the cake and the pan. Loosen the cake.  Say a small prayer.  Invert.  

I like this cake served with lightly whipped cream.  You can absolutely add a light glaze to the cake using powdered sugar + orange juice + vanilla extract.  

This is a lovely visitors cake to have on a cake stand for weekend guests.  

Slices also freeze well, individually wrapped and placed in a freezer-safe bag.  

It’s morning cake, afternoon-with-tea cake, and midnight snack cake.  Won’t you try it!?

These photos shot with my friend: Jon Melendez. 

Print

Whole Orange Bundt Cake

  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Cook Time: 55
  • Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

Scale

For the Crumble

  • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

For the Cake

  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3 medium navel or cara cara oranges (you need 1 1/2 cups of ground oranges so maybe 2 oranges will do if they’re on the large side. Thin skins are key.)
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • lightly whipped whipped cream, for serving

Instructions

  1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease a bundt pan with butter, shortening, or nonstick baking spray. Grease every nook and cranny. Dust generously with flour and knock the excess flour out of the pan. Set aside.
  3. Let’s first make the crumble. In a medium bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, spice, and salt. Add the butter and use your fingers to your the butter into the dry mixture, creating a crumble. Set aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  5. Now let’s grind up the oranges. Chop whole oranges into 2-inch chunks – peel and all! You’ll want to use oranges that don’t have a very thick peel and pith. Choose oranges that have a thinner peel and are relatively seedless.
  6. Place the oranges in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Place the lid on the food processor, and pulse a few rounds to start.
  7. Process the oranges on low speed until the peel, flesh and juice begin to meld, creating a well ground, thick orange mixture. The mixture won’t be completely smooth. It’s ok if there are small pea size chunks of peel in the mixture. Spoon mixture into a glass measuring cup and measure 1 1/2 cups ground orange to use in the cake. Set aside the measured orange mixture.
  8. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, place softened butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
  9. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, on low speed, beating for 1 minute between each addition.
  10. Beat in the vanilla extract until well combined.
  11. On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients. Stir on slow speed just to incorporate.
  12. Add the orange mixture and sour cream and mix to just combine.
  13. Add the final half of the dry ingredients. Stir on slow speed just to incorporate. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl to find any hidden flour pockets. They’re in there!
  14. Give the cake batter one last burst of energy, mixing on medium-high speed for about 30 seconds, just to get it all well incorporated.
  15. Spoon half of the thick cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth the even. Add just over half of the crumble mixture and lightly swirl with a butterknife.
  16. Add the remaining cake batter to the pan and smooth. Add the remaining crumble and again use the butterknife to swirl the cake batter over the crumble mixture – incorporating it.
  17. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs, not wet batter.
  18. Place on a wire rack to cool for 20 to 30 minutes. Before inverting the cake onto a wire rack, gently run a knife down the sides to help loosed any bits that may have stuck.
  19. The key is to invert the cake while it’s just lightly warm, but not hot.
  20. Slice and serve! You’re welcome to add a glaze. I like this cake served with lightly whipped cream and coffee.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 12

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. reem

    Hi Joy! I love all your recipes but I shy away from those that require a mixer of some sort (I’ve yet to own one!) Can I use my weak, but somewhat useful, arms to mix the ingredients?

    Reply

  3. Mary McC

    Brava for using the whole fruit! By the same reasoning I love the whole lemon tart (Dorie Greenspan/ Deb Perlman) which I also made with whole oranges and plan to try with a whole lime. And this cake will rumble thru the whole citrus panoply also! Thanks!

    Reply

  4. Isabelle Payne

    Thank you for this recipe, I made it for Easter for the family and it was very very well received! I have an orange flavoured cake tomake for a client soon and I will be using this recipe.

    Reply

  5. Renee

    Gurl! This cake. Made the original. Amazing. Just made one with 2 whole lemons & 2 skinless limes. Wasn’t sure how the cinnamon & spices would mesh with the zippy citrus, but it…is…SO…GOOD! Now I want to try it with grapefruit. You’ve created a monster…an amazing coffee cake making monster.

    Reply

  6. Jocelyn

    Oh yummy. I just stumbled upon your site today and Im so excited to see someone playing with spices that I love: coriander and cardamom. I’m so excited to try some of these.

    Reply

  7. Janet Hurlbrink

    This cake is simply the most amazing orange cake I have ever made. It is intensely flavored with oranges and the crumbly swirl tastes amazing. I baked longer than the recipe stated and there is an issue with extra salt in the crumb section of the recipe. Overall, this cake isn’t moist, but I don’t believe it’s supposed to be, I think of it more as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea or a breakfast style cake. My family loved it too. I froze some for later as it is dense and large.

    Reply

  8. Jill

    OHHHH MYYYY GOD! I made this cake this morning, and its by far the best cake ever. I can’t get over how incredible it is! Its a total hit, everyone in my family is in love with it.

    Reply

  10. Teresa

    Ok, this was delicious!! However, it was a lot of work! I think I’ll keep this for special occasions. I mean, I started it the evening before them put together in the morning. I used one blood orange and one navel. Moist and tasty! Thank you!

    Reply

  12. Julie

    I made this cake a week ago and got rave reviews from my coworkers! I added a glaze made with orange juice and some orange zest— it added just enough sweetness to compliment the deliciousness of this cake! I’ve got more homegrown oranges to make the cake again tonight! Yum, yum!

    Reply

  14. Teresa

    Looking forward to making this soon! And for anyone having trouble with scraps . . . just get chickens or donate to a friend with backyard chickens! Chickens eat everything! And then they take all the crazy scraps and make the most delicious eggs! I love my chickens and their eggs. Another option is composting for the garden. Lately my chickens get to my compost pile before I can turn it over for garden composing! LOL!

    Reply

  15. Ivory

    I just found and joined your site. This cake caught my eye, and I can hardly wait to make it. One question, can I use OJ, with or without the pulp, instead of doing all that with the oranges? I am sure it will not be as good, just these days I can not stand long, hypothyroid issues. Thanks in advance! This cake looks amazing. Yum!

    Reply

  16. Lori Kind

    This cake was fabulous. The orange flavour was lovely and the crumble complemented it beautifully. I took the cake to work and my colleagues enjoyed it very much. I tried it with whipping cream, but found it blocked the tangy orange flavour so I preferred it without. I’ve also made the best chocolate bundt cake several times and it is also fantastic. Thank you Joy for another lovely recipe.

    Lori

    Reply

  19. Violet

    I made this last night with MUCH success! First of all, it smelled AMAZING the whole time I was making it, so it gets top marks there. More to the point, it received glowing reviews from all who tried it. One of my friends even said it was the best thing I’ve baked, and I’ve whipped up some stuff I’m pretty proud of. :) Will definitely be baking this one again. Thank you for a wonderful addition to my repertoire!!

    Reply

  21. Laura

    Would it be possible to put a link directly to the recipe at the top of the page? The pics and text are nice but sometimes I just want to see the recipe.

    Reply

  22. Kalai

    Hi joy, thank you for this recipe. I plan to try it next weekend as it’s Chinese New Year in my part of the world( singapore) and it’ll be a really nice gift for my Chinese friends as oranges symbolize good luck for them. Do you mind giving measurements in grams as well pls, as i find it quite hard bake with cup measures. Thank you!

    Reply

  25. Christine

    Thanks, Joy – it turned out so delicious! I ended up not including the streusel, but added a glacé of orange juice and powdered sugar – a definite keeper.

    Reply

  27. Argelia Brown

    I made this and it was delicious, but I was wondering if the flavor would change much if I didn’t use all of the orange peel and just used the zest. I know this may be counter productive, but one of my friends stated that the cake gave her an upset stomach and thought that it might have been the acid of the orange peel. Any suggestions? Love, love your blog!!!

    Reply

  28. Jen Ring

    This cake has me so pumped! You absolutely made my day! I was intrigued that you can use the whole orange, that was the hook. Also orange is just what I wanted to smell and taste on a dreary, sleeting Maine day. A crumble that gets massaged with hands. An excuse to drag out the bundt pan. This cakes ticks all the boxes. Thank you, Joy!!

    Reply

  29. Ginelle

    I have the Meyer lemon version of this cake in my oven right now! Our neighbors had a massive crop and couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. I cannot wait to taste it.

    Reply

  31. Michelle

    Hey Joy,
    I really love this cake and will be making it for my next family event.
    Thanks so much for sharing it,
    Michelle

    Reply

  34. Gigi

    What bundt pan are you using. I had one I used for years then we moved and I lost it and I’ve never found another one that didn’t stick. HELP!

    Reply

  35. Kelli

    I tried this cake with blood oranges and the color was beautiful but the orange flavor was barely noticeable. Any suggestions for punching up that orange flavor? Beautiful cake!

    Reply

  36. Henrie Marie

    That looks amazing. I may try a vegan version with blood oranges since they are in season for a bit longer. I never throw anything in the garbage either. I throw it in my yard and the next morning its gone. Its the dead of winter and all have to eat. Thank you for the inspiration.

    Reply

  37. Jessi

    Joy, your cake is baking in my oven as I type… it smells divine!! When I saw it on your insta stories I knew I had to make it with my orangequats, sweet thin skin, tart flesh, I added a speck of sugar since they are tangier than an average orange. Ive got my favorite East Indian friend, who’s in her 60s coming to have tea with my 5&7 year old daughters and I tomorrow… this will be the perfect cake to serve! Your influence in my family’s life inspries better living. So many of our favorite things to eat are “Joy standards”… Thank you!! (FYI: you mention a 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of salt in your crumble ingredients, thinking you meant one or the other ;)

    Reply

  39. Andrea

    One question–can I make it in another type of pan? I don’t have a bundt pan and don’t feel like shopping for one…

    Reply

  41. Claire

    I just pulled this out of the oven and the house smells amazing! Can’t wait to try it later tonight. I used 5 clementines to get exactly 1.5 cups of puree. Did some quality control by sampling a few bites of the batter. YUM. Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply

  43. Jennifer Daniell

    I’m gonna try it cutting back on the butter subbing applesauce and sub greek yogurt for sour cream. (Reducing fat). Anyone tried this?

    Reply

      • Margaret

        I made this tonight using blood oranges. The batter was a pale pretty pink, but the final cake color was remarkably similar to Joy’s, just duller, I guess.

        Generally I really enjoyed the cake! Word of advice: do not skip the crumble! I considered skipping it but I think the cake needed those extra layers of sweetness.

        Reply

    • joythebaker

      I think the cake would work well gluten free is you used a gluten free flour mix that included xanthan gum. I’ve had the most success with a brand called Cup4Cup but it’s pretty pricey.

      Reply

  48. andrea

    I made this tonight without the crumble because I got tired and it got late. It still turned out really well. The house smells amazing. The batter tastes like a creamsicle. (Do you have those in the US? Orange popsicle surrounding vanilla ice cream). Total winner, even without the crumble. Thanks!

    Reply

  50. auntiemaryann

    I make a cake very similar to this, but I peel the orange with a potato peeler in one long spiral and grind it in the blender with a cup of sugar till it’s fine. I found it easier than zesting the orange. I use the whole orange sections, also. Good cake.

    Reply

    • Dawn McNeel

      I just made a Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake w Lemon Icing drizzled over it after flipped out of pan. The coolest thing is lemon sugar 1 Tblsp sugar mixed w 1 Tblsp. Lemon peel. sprinkled all over icing. Amazing!! I can so see this over this in an orange version :)

      Reply

  54. Ryan Boselowitz

    Ohhh man this looks good… I might try to make this vegan, as my sister who I live with is vegan… Any suggestions? Olive oil orange cake sounds delicious to me! But will definitely be trying non vegan as well because I am most definitely not vegan (if you only knew how much milk chocolate I eat!)!

    Reply

  56. Linda Pilcher

    Looks like a perfect winter cake. And, I’m with you on not throwing food out. This is going to be my first dessert of the new year.

    Reply

  57. Chris

    I have to make this cake right now! :) I have a whole bag of those little mandarins that I just bought yesterday…those would work, right? They have very thin skins too! One more question…I don’t have all the ingredients for the crumble, so would the cake be just as good without it? Well, maybe not just as good but would it turn out almost as good?

    Reply

    • michelle panzer

      Chris – I did this with Mandarins but used 2 mandarin w/ peels to every 2 unpeeled – just to even out peel to flesh ratio. worked perfectly!

      Reply

  61. Carly

    We compost but I save everything that I’d put in stock in a Ziplock bag the freezer: carrot peels, celery hearts, onion tops, broccoli stems (we don’t like them), etc. When I have a bag or two (or need the freezer space), I made stock (chicken if I have a carcass, veg if I don’t). My husband calls it compost soup.

    Reply

  62. Sarah

    Do you think this would work with whole meyer lemons as a substitute for oranges? If subbing with the exact measurements? I only ask because I live and breathe for a super lemony cake…

    Reply

  63. Susan

    Thanks so much Joy! Tried a recipe once with the whole orange. Let’s just say I have never tried it again. This will not be the case with this cake! looking forward to making it :)

    Reply

  65. Sina

    What a wonderful cake – I’m imagining the smell… and the texture… wow!
    Navel oranges will be great in this recipe.
    One note though: I suppose the oranges have to be organic since conventional oranges are usually waxed and treated with some sort of fungizide? Thanks! Sina from Germany

    Reply

  66. Gea

    This cake sounds amazing!! I cannot wait to try it! After I’m finished my post holiday fast of course haha ? thank you for sharing!!

    Reply

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