Belinda Jeffery’s Orange Cake

This is a flawless cake and if you follow the instructions to the letter, you too will understand why I believe it is perfect.  I’m not even a lover of the flavour of orange but it is very easy to just keep taking slices from this cake. Belinda includes an option for dried cranberries.  I have never bothered.  If you want to you’ll need 80g and hold back one tblsp of the flour and flour them before you add them to the mix so they don’t all sink to the bottom. I bake it in a simple bundt – one you can find in any good bakeware store and not too exxy. It lends itself perfectly to the size of the cake and for easy slicing, for prettiness and for glazing.

But you must prepare the bundt tin properly.  I honestly do spend as much time preparing a bundt as I do preparing the batter to go in it.  It is worth the time and effort of carefully buttering and flouring.

The texture is velvety and it possesses a rich and buttery orange flavour.  Belinda used orange concentrate when she wrote the recipe.  It’s not available that I can find so I stick with fresh orange juice.  Don’t use supermarket juice.  Squeeze fresh oranges and get the flavour fully fresh and authentic.

*I have adjusted Bel’s recipe by adding a couple more tablespoons of orange juice but you can stick with her original of two and half tablespoons if you prefer.

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour

Half teaspoon salt

Half teaspoon bicarb soda

3 large eggs

440g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter at room temp and cut into chunks

250ml buttermilk

Grate the zest of three oranges

4 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange *

Icing sugar to dust

Orange Glaze

Do make this glaze – it preserves the cake and adds a beautiful crackle to the outside

1 cup icing sugar mixture, sifted

60ml orange juice, freshly squeezed

30g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius

Prepare your tin with care you need approx. 26cm wide

Put the flour, salt and bicarb into a processor and whiz to. Mix.

Add the eggs and sugar into the processor and whiz them for a minute

While whizzing now add chunks of butter and process for another minute until thick and creamy

Add the buttermilk, orange zest and orange juice and whiz for 10 seconds

Add the flour mixture and blend with on/off pulse until JUST COMBINED. You do not want to overmix this.

Stir in the cranberries if using with a rubber spatula for barely seconds

Spoon the batter evenly into the bundt tin. Even out

Bake for about 70 mins or until a fine skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, on a rack for 15 mins during which make the orange glaze by whisking all the ingredients together.

Loosen around the edge of the cake.  Now please take your time. It’s still warm and you don’t want only half to come out.  Ease it away from all the edges inside and outside. Invert and out it should come with some firm tapping.  I have not failed to get this out in one cake without bits clinging and I know that’s because I obsessively prepare the tin beforehand.

Now with a pastry brush, brush the glaze all over the cake repeatedly, leaving not a millimetre unglazed until all the icing has soaked in or formed a sugar layer.  Include the central hollow.

Leave the cake to cool completely.

Next day or once fully cooled, you can dust with icing sugar or make a simple orange icing but honestly, neither are necessary.

Watch it disappear.