This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe comes from Baking with Dorie. Orange Spice Cake sounded like just the ticket for a holiday get together – a simple recipe with festive flavours!
Dorie’s original (lemon) version of this cake appeared years go in her NYT “On Dessert” column and about that one, she said:
Whether you pack this cake as a gift or have it ready when visitors come to you, the imperative to share is implicit in its name. The cake is built for comfort and durability – make it on Thursday or Friday and have it all weekend. And if it stales, toast it; the heat will intensify the lemon and spice deliciously. The cake is easy to make (no machines needed) and, like all spice cakes, better after a day’s rest. Giving it a swish of warmed marmalade when it comes out of the oven is optional. What shouldn’t be passed up is what I call the ‘lemon trick’: Use your fingertips to rub the recipe’s lemon and sugar together until the sugar is moist and aromatic. This easy step transfers everything essential from the lemon to the cake. Think of it as aromatherapy for the cake and you.
All this is true about the orange version we made this week!
(excuse the photos here, these were taken around 8pm on a dark December night inside!)
Both Dorie’s lemon and orange versions use ginger and cardamom as the spices but I don’t like cardamom so I used ginger, cinnamon, cloves and a little nutmeg. The spices are subtle (only 1 1/2 teaspoons for the entire cake serving 10) but make your house smell amazing! The clementine zest rubbed into the sugar gives this an intense orange flavour, she’s right, that step is not to be missed!
I was baking this for a gluten-free crowd , some of whom have slight dairy intolerance so as well as switching up the spices, I made the following changes:
- Used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Baking Flour which I find produces excellent results
- Instead of the cream, I used sunflower oil
- I cut back on the sugar (probably only used 3/4 cup here and not noticeable at all) – this was because I finished my sugar bag at that point measuring and didn’t want to open a new one lol!
- I also changed up the glaze (see below)
(sorry, Dorie!)
In any case, it worked out well – was fully baked after 70 minutes.
Dorie calls for her version to be glazed with a mix of marmalade and boiling water but because the top of mine had not formed a dome-like shape as many loaf cakes do (maybe because of my substitutions?), it wasn’t the prettiest so I went with a simple icing sugar glaze made with clementine juice and some more zest. Maybe not pretty but it was SO good (people were scraping the serving plate!).
I’ll remember this as 1. an easy one-bowl cake, 2. that travels well and 3. that people loved!
Get the recipe for Orange Spice Cake on p 119 of Baking with Dorie or a lemon version of it here.
Buy Baking with Dorie and join us baking through the book!
Buy Baking with Dorie on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store geographically closest to you). For free worldwide shipping, buy it on Blackwell’s. To support your local Indie bookstore, purchase on Bookshop.org.
Then join us over on Tuesdays with Dorie and bake your way through the book!
_________
Please note: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains affiliate links from Blackwell’s and Bookshop.org. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
_________
Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Baking with Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions are 100% my own.
_________
Buy my books! In the French kitchen with kids and French Food for Everyone: le goûter (after school snacks), le dîner (dinner) and le petit déjeuner (breakfast) are out now!
Click here for details and how to order!
Your cake turned out so pretty with that lovely icing dripping down the sides, I love the look of that, it just seems so inviting. Thank you for the notes on the gluten-free version…I added those in my book as I am always scrambling to come up with Gluten Free anything to serve to those in need of it. Such a fun read, such a beautiful cake.
Totally agree with your 3 points about this one. So good.
Out of interest, Mardi … is this cake moist? Just asking. And, how long could it keep reasonably fresh?
Yes it’s very moist (even the GF version was!) and it would keep for a few days easily at room temp wrapped tightly in plastic.
Love the lemon glaze on your cake. The quote for the lemon glaze applies to the glaze on the orange cake. So I took the liberty and copy it. Thanks for the quote!
Glad this worked out with all the substitutions!
The glaze looks great. I’m going to try it clementines, too– very Christmasy!
The cake looks delicious! Glad the substitutions worked.
My husband does not like cardamom either so we had to make substitutions. Glad your GF version worked well.