Fresh Orange Pound Cake in a Loaf Pan

This fresh orange pound cake bursts with vibrant citrus flavor from the juice, zest, and flesh of just one whole orange, and boasts a tender crumb thanks to a dollop of sour cream. Baked in a standard-sized loaf pan, it’s a simple yet delightful cake that pairs perfectly with a cup of tea or scoop of ice cream. It's a slice of sunshine in every bite!

I love orange flavor far more than I love eating oranges. So when I was recently gifted a half dozen oranges, I wanted to find a way to use them that wasn't just eating them plain. So I took my popular lemon-blueberry sour cream cake recipe and gave it an orange makeover.

I also wanted to make sure as little of the orange went to waste as possible. So this pound cake uses the juice, flesh, and zest of the orange to flavor the cake, as well as orange zest and fresh orange juice to make the simple icing glaze. When you look closely at the cake crumb, you can see real flecks of orange when you slice it!

The addition of sour cream makes this single-orange pound cake extra moist and tender, while the zest, juice, and flesh bring vibrant orange flavor to every slice.

In this post I'll walk you through how to make the most of a single orange to bake up an orange pound cake that's perfect all year round.

Like all my best cake recipes, this orange pound cake is so good served with a scoop of ice cream. Personally, I recommend my favorite orange cardamom chocolate chip ice cream. But it's also great dolloped with mascarpone and marmalade or fresh berries!

Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make this orange loaf cake recipe! See recipe card for quantities.

• Large Orange Juice, Flesh, and Zest - The bigger the better when it comes to picking the perfect orange for this cake. While you can use any variety of orange, I liked the results I got best from a Valencia orange. They're a bit easier to juice and they're sweeter than Naval oranges, giving the cake a better flavor while also being slightly less work for you. The different parts of the orange are used in a couple different steps of this recipe, so make sure you read each step carefully to make sure you're not discarding something you'll need later!
• Unsalted Butter - This recipe uses unsalted American-style butter (e.g. not European butter like Kerrygold). If using salted butter, cut the amount of salt in the recipe in half.
• Sugar - Plain old regular granulated white sugar.
• Eggs - This recipe uses large eggs. Extra large eggs will also work.
• Flour - Regular all purpose flour. Gluten free cup-for-cup all purpose flours should also work, but I haven't personally tested them.
• Sour Cream - Full fat sour cream (or full fat plain Greek yogurt) adds a ton of moisture and makes this cake very soft and tender.
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is half as salty as other brands and types of salt. If you're measuring by volume (teaspoons) and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
• Baking Powder - Double acting baking powder helps ensure this cake rises dramatically with a soft, tender texture.
• Powdered Sugar - Also called confectioner's sugar. This is a fine powdered sugar that is used to make the orange icing on top of this cake.

• Bring the butter to room temperature. Let the butter sit out at room temperature (70°F) for an hour or two prior to baking. If you need to speed this process up, microwave the wrapped sticks of butter for about 4 seconds per side. The butter should still feel slightly cool to the touch and soft enough to press a finger into, but not so soft that it's greasy or melty — you're looking for a temperature of about 65°F.
• Bring the eggs to room temperature. Submerge the eggs in very hot water for about 10-15 minutes prior to mixing. This helps them incorporate into the cake batter easily and will allow your cake to rise. If they're cold when you add them to the butter and sugar, they'll cool down the butter, causing the batter to break and separate.
• Zest about ¾ of the orange peel into the sugar. This is for the first step of the recipe, but since you'll also need to juice part of the orange before you get started, it's easiest to get the zest off before you cut the orange!
• Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl or container, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
• Mix the wet ingredients together. Mix together the sour cream, orange juice, and orange pulp. Set it aside. Cut the orange into quarters, squeeze as much juice out of two or three of the quarters as you can, and then use your fingers to shred the pulp into the mixture until you reach the correct weight. ***IMPORTANT: Cut the orange so you can save at least one of the orange quarters with the peel still on to use to make the icing later.***

How to Make Orange Pound Cake

The first step of this orange pound cake recipe is to rub the orange zest into the sugar. This releases the oils from the zest and does a lot to really enhance the orange flavor of the cake. If you have dexterity issues or can't rub the zest into the sugar, you can let the mixer paddle do the work for you.

From here, we're following the creaming method of mixing, just like most of my other best cake recipes. I wrote a lot more about the creaming method in detail in my vanilla pound cake recipe and I do recommend popping over there to read about it if you're a beginner baker.

Combine the softened butter, granulated sugar, and the orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and cream them together on medium speed.

Being patient during the first step of creaming the butter and sugar together is particularly important for giving your cake a soft, fluffy texture and a dramatic domed top. It can take several minutes for it to reach the right fluffy texture and pale color.

Pause and scrape down the bowl and beater at least 3 times (about every 90 seconds) during the creaming step.

When properly creamed together, the orange butter and sugar mixture will be pale in color, light, and fluffy looking. If you rub it between your fingers, the sugar granules should be almost entirely dissolved but still feel slightly gritty.

The next step is to add the eggs without collapsing all the air you just worked into the butter. You do this by adding them one at a time and giving the butter plenty of time to incorporate each egg (about 45-60 seconds) before adding the next one.

Scrape down the bowl and beater before adding each egg, and then again before you move on to the next step.

The final step is to alternate adding the dry ingredients and the orange pulp and sour cream mixture on the lowest speed possible. Using a low speed for this final step prevents over-mixing and ensures your cake has a moist, tender texture.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix on low. Stop the mixer when there are a few streaks of flour left in the bowl. You'll finish mixing those in by hand when you scrape down the beater and sides of the bowl. This also helps prevent over mixing!

Bake the cake at 350°F for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick or small knife inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. You're looking for an internal temperature of 200°-209°F.

Let the orange loaf cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 15-20 minutes. Then run a knife around any sides of the pan without parchment paper and use the parchment sling to lift it out and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

This cake is so soft and tender, it needs to be completely cool so the starches have time to set before you slice it. Otherwise, it might fall apart on you!

Orange Icing Glaze

Take one of the orange quarters that hasn't been zested or juiced yet that you set aside earlier. Zesting an orange quarter isn't the easiest thing ever, but if you hold it over the bowl of powdered sugar, at least any juice dripping off will go where it needs to end up anyway.

Pour the orange icing glaze over the top of the pound cake and use a mini offset spatula to spread it around in an even layer.

Pro-Tip: Rotate the sheet of parchment paper that lined the loaf pan under the cake so that it can catch drips on all the sides!

Your orange icing glazed pound cake is now ready to serve!

Suggested Equipment

Here's the equipment I use to make this orange pound cake. You don't need to have all of these same tools, but they may make the process easier!

• Microplane Zester - A classic rasp-style zester will make quick work of the orange peel to give you super fine zest for the cake batter and icing glaze. Use code TPK10 for 10% off your order at Microplane.com!
• Electric Mixer - I use a KitchenAid stand mixer with the paddle attachment. An electric hand mixer will also work — the creaming stage may just take a little longer.
• 1 Pound Loaf Pan - A "1 pound" loaf pan is approximately 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 3 inches tall. A 1.25 pound loaf pan (9x5x3) will also work but your cake may not have the same height that mine does in these photos as there's more room for the batter to spread out. Metal pans work best for getting that golden brown crust. You may need to adjust baking time and temperature if using a glass pan (King Arthur Baking recommends lowering the temperature by 25°F and adding 10 minutes to the bake time).
• Quarter Pan Pre-Cut Parchment Sheets - I use these pre-cut parchment sheets to create a parchment sling that lines the pan to make the pound cake easier to remove. You'll have to trim about an inch off one of the long sides for it to fit, but they work very nicely!
• Metal Binder Clips - To secure the parchment paper in place so it doesn't fold in on top of the cake in the oven. Do not use plastic binder clips in the oven. I repeat, no plastic in the oven.
• Mini Offset Spatula - For smoothing out the cake batter in the pan. Trust me, you'll think a regular spatula or a knife can do the same job, but once you try using a mini offset spatula, there's no going back.

Storage Notes & Freezing

This orange pound cake can be stored at room temperature with an airtight cover for 4-5 days. You can also refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to a week.

You can also freeze this pound cake for up to 3 months. Freeze it on a sheet tray to get the icing to set, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place it inside a resealable plastic bag with as much air pressed out as possible. Defrost in the fridge and let come to room temperature for serving.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• If the cake batter begins to look split or curdled as you're adding the eggs, don't sweat it too much. It will come back together when you add the flour.
• When in doubt, SCRAPE DOWN THE BOWL. If it feels like you're stopping too often to scrape down the bowl, that means you're doing it right. You don't want any ingredients to go unincorporated or you'll end up with large air bubbles or clumps in your final cake.
• Mixing the dry ingredients on the lowest possible speed and stopping as soon as they're all combined is super important. The goal is to avoid developing gluten in the cake batter, which would make your blueberry pound cake dense and tough, with lots of trapped tunnels of air bubbles inside.
• To keep the cake from sticking to the pan, spray the pan with non stick spray, then line with a parchment paper sling. The non-stick spray helps the paper stick to the walls of the pan. I use metal binder clips to help hold the paper in place, but this is optional.
• If you don't have parchment paper you can grease and flour the pan by spraying it with nonstick spray or wiping it down with a paper towel dabbed with a bit of olive oil. Add about a tablespoon of flour into the pan and tap, tilt, and rotate the pan over the sink until the flour evenly coats all the sides of the pan.
• Make sure your baking powder is fresh! If you aren't sure, it's probably not. Baking powder is good for about 6 months, after that it loses its potency. To check if it's still good, Epicurious recommends mixing 1 cup very hot tap water with 2 teaspoons baking powder: "If there’s an immediate fizzing reaction that dissipates all of the powder, you’ll know it still works. If there’s no bubbling, the baking powder is no longer potent and needs to be swapped out."
• GLUTEN FREE/ALMOND FLOUR/WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR - Cup-for-cup gluten free flour should work just fine here. Almond flour is just ground almonds, it will not work in this cake. Whole wheat flour will make the cake very dry, I don't recommend it.

Why Temperatures Matter

Make sure you pay attention to the temperature directions in this pound cake recipe. If your ingredients aren't at the right temperature the cake may not rise properly!

• If your butter is too warm, it won't incorporate enough air. If the butter is too cold, it will take much longer to cream properly.
• If you use cold eggs, they will cause the butter to firm up in the mixer and you risk it curdling or splitting, resulting in a flat, dense, tough cake.
• If your oven runs hot or runs cold, this can affect the cake's rise, the thickness of the crust, the texture, and the baking time. I recommend using an oven thermometer to make sure you're baking it at the right temperature!

Why is this recipe in grams? I want to use cups!

A kitchen scale is more accurate than cup measurements and will give you the right ratio of dry and liquid ingredients so that the cake batter behaves the way we want it to. The name of this cake is literally pound cake — it's super important that you have equal amounts of flour, butter, and sugar by weight to get the best results.

I tested and developed this recipe using weight measurements. If I were to convert it to volume measurements, I would be using an online conversion calculator — just like you would. There's no set standard for how much "1 cup" of flour weighs (I use 120 grams, like King Arthur Baking does, but other recipe developers use as much as 150 grams as "1 cup"), which means this will produce wildly varying results. Not to mention, depending on how tightly packed or aerated your flour is, you may end up scooping way too much or way too little flour. I want you to succeed when you follow this recipe — use a kitchen scale for best results!

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