The Friday Baking Project

Orange Pound Cake

Yield: 1 cake

# of Servings: 10

Method: Creaming

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3 cups less 2 tbl (13.5 oz / 383 g) cake flour, sifted
• ½ tsp (.1 oz / 3 g) salt
• ¼ tsp (.05 oz / 1.5 g) baking soda
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• 1 orange, zested
• 2 tbl orange juice (from zested orange)
• 1 cup (8 oz / 227 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 ½ cup (18 oz / 511 g) sugar
• 6 eggs, room temperature, well-beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:

1 ½ cup / 6.3 oz / 178 g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 orange, zested

2 tbl orange juice (from zested orange), approximately

Tools and equipment needed:

• One 12-cup bundt or kugelhopf pan, or 2 six-cup bundt pans.
• Hand held or free-standing mixer with paddle attachment.
• Mixing bowl
• Rubber spatula, dry and liquid measuring cups, tablespoon measuring set, juicer.

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Carefully butter and flour the Bundt pan, or use a spray that contains flour, such as Baker’s Joy or Pam for Baking. Do not use regular cooking spray. For Bundt pans, I have become a convert to Baker’s Joy.
• Have all ingredients at room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Directions

Cake:

1. Sift dry ingredients, set aside
2. Combine the sour cream, zest, and juice. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
4. Add vanilla extract to eggs, mix to combine.
5. Slowly add the eggs, in 6 stages, beating well in-between each egg addition.
6. Scrape the bottom of the bowl, beat until smooth.
7. Add the dry ingredients in three stages, alternately with the sour cream mixture in two stages, beginning and ending with the dry. Use a plastic spatula to scrape up from the bottom to ensure a well-blended batter.
8. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.
9. Bake for between 48 and 55 minutes, when a the top of the when the top feels firm and a cake tester comes out with just a few crumbs. Baking times will vary depending on the size and shape of the pan used. Start testing after 45 minutes.
10. Let pan cool on rack for 5 minutes. Then with kitchen towels or pot holder, place the rack over the cake and flip over so cake is released from the pan right-side up.
11. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Glaze:

1. Add as much of the orange juice as necessary to make a smooth, pourable glaze. Add the orange rind.
2. Moving around the cake, pour the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides.
3. Let the cake cool completely.
4. Cake may be kept, wrapped in plastic, at room temperature. The whole cake, or portions of it, may be frozen.

Baking tips:

1. As with all pound cakes, room temperature butter is very important to allow for proper creaming of the butter, sugar, and eggs.
2. To facilitate slowly adding the eggs to the batter, beat the eggs in a 2-cup measure.
3. This batter tends to stick to cake pan so it is important to butter, or spray the pan well.
4. For two 6-cup pans, reduce the baking time slightly, check for doneness after 35 minutes. 
5. Baking time will vary depending on size, shape, and material of the Bundt pan.