The Holidays!
Liz and I are enjoying a few extra days off with the kids and it’s fantastic! We tacked on a few vacation days to our Christmas and Boxing Day holidays so that we could get the whole week off to spend more time with the kids, visit family and friends, and have a little break from normal routines like making school lunches and waking up early to get to the office. We’ve accomplished this, although we’ve been getting to bed late every night and we still feel like we haven’t had enough sleep :-).
Our Christmas day…
We usually get together with Liz’s side of the family on Christmas day, but this year that gathering happened on Boxing Day instead, which left Christmas day with no plans. This was actually very nice! We slept-in, opened gifts, had a big breakfast, watched a Christmas movie, had more good eats, and we stayed in our PJs all day!! We really relaxed and enjoyed the day together–it was a perfect and perfectly simple day.
Visiting and Hosting
Over the holidays we try to call, visit, and host as many friends as we can. This means preparing more meals than usual and of course more desserts than usual. This year I made quite a few cakes. One of these cakes was an orange pound cake. I took our lemon bundt cake and modified it to be a little fluffier, more moist and of course full of orange flavour. The result was fantastic! Our guests enjoyed it and the kids all went for seconds. The highlight of this cake is the freshly squeezed orange juiced poured over it after it’s baked and before adding the glaze. Citrus goodness in a cake. I’m pretty sure this one will be requested often at our house!
Our wishes…
No matter what you celebrate at this time of the year, our wishes are for you to get to spend quality time with those you love, to take some time to relax and reflect, to be healthy and happy, and to always eat well, friends.
This orange pound cake is moist on the inside with freshly squeezed orange juice. Perfect at home or as a gift when visiting friends and family. So good.
- 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour (all-purpose flour will also work)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 6 eggs room, temperature
- 1 tbsp orange zest from about 1 orange
- 6 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice from about 1 1/2 navel oranges (for the batter and pouring over the cake)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
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Preheat the oven to 350 ºF.
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Grease (with room temperature butter) and flour a tube pan. Use a paper towel to make sure all nooks and crannies are covered in butter before applying the flour. Make sure to also get the centre and top edges of the pan with butter and flour to prevent sticking. Be generous with the layer of butter.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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In a large stand mixer bowl, beat the sugar and butter on medium high until light and fluffy. About 6 minutes.
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With the stand mixer still on medium high, add one egg at-a-time and let mix until completely combined.
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Stop the stand mixer and scrape the batter from the sides with a soft spatula into the centre.
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Add the orange zest, 2 tbsp orange juice and vanilla. Let the stand mixer run for another minute on medium low speed.
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Stop the stand mixer and scrape down the batter to the centre of the bowl.
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Start up the mixer again on the lowest speed.
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Carefully and slowly (to avoid a mess) spoon in or pour in the flour mixture a bit at-a-time.
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Mix on the lowest speed until the flour is well incorporated into the batter, about 2 minutes.
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Stop the mixer and remove the bowl.
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Add the sour cream to the stand mixer bowl and use a spatula to combine well, but be careful no to over-mix or beat.
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Pour/scoop (it'll be thick) the batter into the bundt pan.
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Place the cake pan in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 60 minutes or until the cake tester or toothpick comes out clean/dry.
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Once the cake comes out, let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes.
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Transfer out the cake to a cooling rack to cool from all sides.
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Let the cake cool for another 30 minutes.
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Place the cake on a cake plate or serving dish.
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Pour 4 tbsp of the freshly squeezed orange juice evenly and slowly over the cake. Pour slowly to let the orange juice disappear into the pours of the cake.
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Once the cake is completely cool, prepare the orange glaze.
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In a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium.
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In a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium.
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Add the orange juice and powdered sugar, and whisk until completely combined.
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Keep whisking until the glaze is very smooth. About 3 to 4 minutes.
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5. Carefully pour the hot glaze over and around the top edges of the cake. Let the glaze run down the outer and inner sides of the cake. You might have to help pour the last bit of glaze with a spoon since it starts to harden as soon as it starts to cool.
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Let the cake and glaze cool another 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
You will need 1/2 cup in total of freshly squeezed orange juice. Store bought 100% orange juice will do in a pinch, but in our opinion, freshly squeezed orange juice tastes better for this recipe.
[…] turned back to food and what I was going to make for dinner. For some reason I thought of the orange pound cake I baked recently for a dinner party. Then I started thinking about how great oranges taste around […]