Orange Pound Cake

This idea for this came to me last week when I wanted a citrus cake that wasn't lemon and thought 'oh orange'! Full disclosure, I thought I invented Orange Pound Cake last week for about 30 minutes. I did not. Regardless, I decided to convert a family recipe for lemon pound into a NEW family recipe for orange pound cake. With this, you're also getting 2 bonus recipes, one for candied oranges and one for orange frosting!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Ingredients

Cake

1 Package of Cream Cheese

¾ cups of margarine

1 ½ cups of sugar

I pack of vanilla powder (or 1½ tsp. vanilla extract)

4 eggs

½ grated orange rind

2 ¼ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ orange’s juice

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup butter

1 package of cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

½ grated orange rind

2 tbsp. Fresh orange juice

Candied Oranges

2 oranges

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

Directions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Add diced cream cheese, margarine and sugar to a stand mixer and beat until smooth and fluffy. Turn it up high and WHIP IT GOOD. Once it’s whipped and fluffy (3-4 minutes), turn it down a notch.

Add one egg at a time and keep mixing.

Mix the flour, vanilla powder and baking powder in a separate bowl and add it to the mixer one spoon at a time. Keep mixing.

Add the orange juice and rind to the mixture. Once it’s all combined, you can stop mixing.

Rub your pan with margarine, get it in all the cracks and crevices. Sprinkle flour on top of the margarine (this prevents your cake from sticking) and add your batter.

If you’re making this in small rounds for a tiered cake (pictured), bake for 50 minutes each. If you’re making all of the batter in one bundt pan, bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN while it’s baking. Just look at it through the window. If you open the oven too much it deflates.

Once it’s done, take it out, let it cool completely.

Cream cheese frosting

Cream together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, orange juice and zest until light and fluffy.

Candied Oranges

Slice the oranges to desired thickness. And boil them for one minute- this will take away the bitter taste of the rind. Quickly transfer them to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Make your simple syrup by combining equal parts sugar and water and bring to a low boil. Add you orange slices in, making sure they are fully covered, and low boil for about an hour.

Once they’re ready, strain and dry them on a drying rack. I dried them for 24 hours, but you can go shorter or longer, it just depends on how thick your slices are.

Assemble all the pieces and VOILA! Beautiful little orange cake!

If you're more of a visual person, check out the video below illustrating the recipe step-by-step with tips and tricks peppered in. Video Length: 5:03