Cast Iron Orange Cake

Name: Cast Iron Orange Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 1 10-inch cake
Ingredients: 2 cups/400 grams granulated sugar; 2 navel oranges; 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or vanilla extract; 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground (optional); 1/2 teaspoon plus a pinch kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal; 1 cup/226 grams salted butter, at room temperature; 2 medium or large egg yolks, at room temperature; 2 cups/255 grams all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup/50 grams semolina flour (or another 1/4 cup/32 grams all-purpose flour); 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 cup/60 grams chopped toasted walnuts; Olive oil, for the pan; 3/4 cup/180 milliliters heavy cream; 1/2 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar; Pinch of kosher salt; 1/4 cup/60 milliliters whole buttermilk

By Lisa Donovan

Updated Nov. 1, 2023

Cast Iron Orange Cake — Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.

Total Time: 2 hours
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes plus cooling
Rating: 4(590)
Comments: Read comments

This is an elegant version of an easy Sunday cake – one that can be made early in the morning for eating a warm slice right out of the oven with coffee, and then letting it sit on the counter to enjoy it as a snack cake as the week rolls along. It magically gets better and better each day. It is adapted from Paul Bertolli’s Bitter Orange Cake recipe in his masterpiece, “Cooking by Hand,” which uses blood oranges. Here, a humble navel orange is used for its friendly sweetness. Rubbing some zest into the sugar, adding fennel and vanilla and flexing the charms of its main character ingredient (the orange), this beautifully simple cake becomes a bit deeper in its character. Playing around a bit with the flour, replacing some of the all-purpose with a toasted chestnut flour or by adding a little semolina, as this recipe calls for, makes for a delightful play on flavor, texture and crumb.

Featured in: An Orange Cake From a Revolutionary Chef

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Ingredients

Yield:1 10-inch cake

For the Cake

2cups/400 grams granulated sugar
2navel oranges
2teaspoons vanilla paste or vanilla extract
¼teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground (optional)
½teaspoon plus a pinch kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal
1cup/226 grams salted butter, at room temperature
2medium or large egg yolks, at room temperature
2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
¼cup/50 grams semolina flour (or another ¼ cup/32 grams all-purpose flour)
2teaspoons baking powder
½cup/60 grams chopped toasted walnuts
Olive oil, for the pan

For the Buttermilk Chantilly Cream (optional)

¾cup/180 milliliters heavy cream
½tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
¼cup/60 milliliters whole buttermilk

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Make the cake: Place a 10-inch cast iron pan on the middle rack of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees while you prepare the batter.
Step 2
Add sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and finely zest one orange into it. Set the bowl aside and then trim a bit of the stem end off both oranges and discard. Cut oranges into 8 pieces and puree in a food processor or blender, scraping the bowl as needed. You need 1½ cups puree; set aside.
Step 3
To the stand mixer bowl, add vanilla, fennel seeds (if using) and a pinch of salt. Rub ingredients together vigorously with your hands and fingers.
Step 4
When sugar is fragrant, add butter and set the mixer to medium-high speed to cream until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down bowl and paddle, making sure you aren’t leaving any butter unattended.
Step 5
Add egg yolks and beat on medium-high until well incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes more, remembering to scrape bowl and paddle as needed.
Step 6
While wet ingredients are working in the mixer, prepare dry ingredients by whisking together flour, semolina, baking powder and salt.
Step 7
Scrape butter mixture down from bowl and paddle. Give it a good stir to make sure the batter is well mixed. Return to the stand mixer, add the reserved 1½ cups orange puree and slowly incorporate on medium-low speed, then turn to medium-high to blend well.
Step 8
Starting on low speed, add dry ingredients, then increase speed to medium-high and eventually to high, scraping bowl and paddle all the livelong day, until batter is very well mixed.
Step 9
Remove the bowl from the mixer and use your spatula to scrape and stir in the nuts, making sure they’re well combined.
Step 10
Remove the hot skillet from the oven, brush with a generous amount of olive oil and spread batter in the hot pan. It should sizzle and will get a nice, toasty caramelized bottom during baking.
Step 11
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The cake should be set in the middle and golden brown on top. You can use a cake tester if you have one; it should come out clean. This cake can be eaten on its own warm out of the oven after sitting for a little over 30 minutes.
Step 12
If you’d like, make the cream: Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer, beat heavy cream in a large bowl, gradually adding sugar along with a pinch of salt until firm peaks form, 3 to 6 minutes. Add buttermilk and beat until billowy with soft peaks, about 1 minute. Serve immediately with slices of cooled cake, or chill in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours. If the cream separates a bit after sitting, gently beat the cream with a whisk (nothing electric here) just to recombine.

Ratings

4 out of 5

590 user ratings

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Comments

Su1 year ago

You absolutely don't need a stand mixer for this recipe; a wooden spoon and some careful stirring will work perfectly well. Only a very few recipes actually require a stand mixer, and I wish that NYT Cooking would do a better job of acknowledging where a stand mixer is merely a recipe writer's preference.

Amasa1 year ago

You might want to search cooking.nytimes for Claudia Roden’s orange almond cake which is gluten free. She calls for 1/2 lb ground almonds. I used Bob’s Red Mill super fine almond flour (it’s 100% almonds). It worked perfectly and was delicious.

Mary W1 year ago

If I. Don’t have a cast iron pan what should I use?

Simone3 months ago

Step 2 is confusing: ...finely zest one orange into it. Set the bowl aside and then trim a bit of the stem end off both oranges and discard. Cut oranges into 8 pieces and puree in a food processor or blender. Do I have to cut the white skin off the zested first orange? What about the second one, peel it?

Mere in Mich3 months ago

Brilliant cake. Simple, but the texture is amazing, the flavor clean. The perfect snacking cake. Used fennel pollen instead of fennel seeds for a more floral note, and almond flour for the semolina. Will make again!

Pasadena baker4 months ago

This was delicious- a very adult flavor- the fennel is a wonderful note. I omitted the nuts per another comment. Baking took about an hour- could be my oven. I would make it again for sure.

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