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Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

Best Orange Cake

A moist, tender fresh orange cake with a sweet orange cream cheese frosting. How to make the perfect orange cake!

Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

Oh, how I love baking cakes. Since my kids were little, I always let them choose their ultimate cake flavor. They would come up with some highly creative, interesting ideas! Since my daughter loves all things fruit, she always asks for a fresh fruit cake.

She was turning 10 and requested a homemade orange cake with orange cream cheese frosting. I emailed my sister-in-law, who is an incredible cake baker, and she sent over this recipe. I have tweaked it over the years but it the perfect orange cake recipe.

Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

This fluffy Orange Cake made with fresh orange juice and orange zest gives it that perfect amount of orange flavor. The frosting is a combination of sweet cream butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and orange zest. You can completely cover the cake with frosting for a traditional cake or if you love the look of a naked cake, just do a nice “crumb coat” on the outside of the cake. This makes a beautiful naked orange cake!

Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

To make this Orange Cake extra special, I used a Blood Orange Olive Oil from the Queen Creek Olive Oil. This infuses the cake with a light fragrant blood orange flavor. You can buy straight from their website HERE.

Queen Creek Olive Mill Blood Orange Olive Oil. Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

Tips for making the Best Orange Cake:

  1. Start with the dry ingredients. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. The two leavening agents – baking soda and baking powder – give the cake a nice rise.
  2. Adding Oil makes the orange cake extra moist. You can use extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, or coconut oil. My favorite thing to use is the Blood Orange Olive Oil from the Queen Creek Olive Oil. You can find it HERE.
  3. Use Orange Juice and Fresh Orange Zest to impart orange flavor into the cake. This gives it an all-natural orange flavor. A zester is an essential tool in the kitchen to ensure you only get the orange peel, instead of the bitter white rind.
  4. Sour Cream helps to create a perfect texture. By using sour cream or buttermilk, it creates a tender crumb.
  5. Bake just until a toothpick comes out clean in the center of the cake. If you want the cake to be extra moist, you may brush the layers with a simple syrup, which is a water-sugar syrup.
  6. Once the cakes are cool, frost with homemade orange frosting. The frosting is made by whipping butter and cream cheese for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest.

Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

MORE FAVORITE CAKE RECIPES FROM MODERN HONEY:

Click to find some of my favorite cake pans — 8-inch cake pan and 9-inch cake pan.

Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

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4.88 from 82 votes

Orange Cake

By: Melissa Stadler, Modern Honey
A fresh homemade orange cake with a sweet cream cheese frosting.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 14

Ingredients  

  • 2 1/2 cups Flour
  • 1 3/4 cups Sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 cup Oil (extra-virgin olive oil, canola, or blood orange evoo)
  • 1 cup Fresh Orange Juice
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1 cup Sour Cream
  • 1 - 2 teaspoons Orange Zest

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 1 cup Butter softened
  • 1 - 8- ounce pkg. Cream Cheese softened
  • 4 cups Powdered Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Orange Zest
  • 2 Tablespoons Fresh Orange Juice

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  • In another mixing bowl, cream oil, orange juice, eggs, sour cream, and orange zest until completely mixed.
  • Fold in dry ingredients, mixing only until combined.
  • Generously grease your non-stick cake pans with non-stick cooking spray or grease them with butter and flour. Pour batter into greased (3) 8-inch or (2) 9-inch cake pans.
  • Bake for 19-21 minutes, depending on the size of pan used. To test if the cakes are done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cakes are done. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans.
  • To make frosting:
  • In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl halfway through mixing. Stir in powdered sugar, orange zest, and orange juice.
  • Once cakes are cooled, frost with orange cream cheese frosting.

Nutrition

Calories: 620kcal, Carbohydrates: 80g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 33g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 15g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 78mg, Sodium: 381mg, Potassium: 144mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 60g, Vitamin A: 574IU, Vitamin C: 9mg, Calcium: 53mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 14
Calories: 620
Keyword: orange cake
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Homemade Orange Cake with Sweet Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. How to make the best orange cake. Orange cake with orange frosting. Naked orange cake. www.modernhoney.com #cake #orangecake #nakedcake #nakedorangecake

That girl, who was turning ten years old, just graduated a few days ago from high school. Of course, I heard from older mothers about how fast time goes but still wasn’t fully prepared. I am so excited for her to experience college life but my heart aches to think of her leaving home. The day after graduation, we took off for Kauai Hawaii to celebrate her graduation. This is just what the family needed – some good relaxing family time while filling our days with some serious adventure! You can follow along on instagram @modern_honey. Happy Baking, my friends!


Hi, I'm Melissa Stadler!

I am an Award-Winning Recipe Creator. Cover of Food Network Magazine. Two-Time Pillsbury Bake-Off Finalist. I am passionate about sharing the best recipes so you have success in the kitchen!

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122 Comments

  1. The cake batter is in a bundt pan in the oven now …. cannot wait to see the results. I veganized it so I hope my calculations and substitutions work out. I also reduced the amount of sugar and oil.

  2. 5 stars
    This was the first cake I made from scratch and it came out so good! Can’t wait to make it again. Next time I’m skipping the icing, too sweet for me. I will try the glaze mentioned in the comments. Thanks so much!!

  3. I live in a high altitude area of Utah, what changes would I make to the Orange cake recipe in order for it to work here? I would love to make the Orange cake for my family, it sounds divine.

  4. 5 stars
    We made this on Friday. It was fantastic. We did have to cook it several minutes longer than the recipe said, but that could have just been our oven. Came out great. Thanks for sharing this.

  5. Hi! I made this for my son on his 1st birthday last week, it was delicious and he (and everyone else) loved it! I picked this recipe because oranges are his favorite. It really delivered; moist, tender, and fantastic orange flavor without having to use extract. Just a fantastic recipe overall. Thank you so much for sharing! I shared a picture on pintrest too.

    https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/180284791318348826/activity/tried

  6. 5 stars
    Once again you made me look good! 🙂 This cake was so good and now I want to make all kinds of oil cakes. I was too lazy to go to the olive mill for the blood orange olive oil but next time I will definitely kick it up a notch with the flavored oil. It doesn’t need it though, yum!!

    1. 5 stars
      I baked this for a birthday party and not a crumb remained. We loved it, thank you for the amazing recipe! My grocery store only had lemon infused olive oil, but that was my one change to the cake. Delicious!

      Since cream cheese isn’t my favourite, I made an Italian meringue buttercream and sprinkled candied walnuts between the layers. It’s sacreligious for a chocolate fiend to admit, but this orange cake may be the best one I’ve ever eaten 🙂

    1. Hi Tara! That’s such great news! I am so happy you love it. Thank you for your kind comment.

    1. Hi Marie. That is a great question! I scoop my flour and then level off but DO NOT pack it down. I hope that helps!