Cara Cara Orange Cake
Happy First Day of Spring! I think we should all celebrate by making this Cara Cara Orange Cake with some Orange Cream Cheese Icing. I mean, it's FINALLY spring. I need some major citrus. And a pretty cake never hurts.
In the photos, you'll see one 8-inch round layer. That's because I used the other half of the batter in my Ikea Horse Cake tin. Big mistake. I mean, it was a cute cake. It tasted just as good, but it's REALLY hard to photograph a horse cake. Anyway, you can make yours however you like. But a two layer 8-inch round one would be perfect.
My icing recipe makes more than this needs also, but I just spread some on a chocolate banana sheet cake to use up the rest. I guess I'm on a cake kick. Sometimes it's kale and cauliflower, sometimes it's cake.
I hope you love this cake. It uses sweet Cara Cara oranges, which we LOVE and we always pick up a bag when Costco has them. Also worth noting, I've only put 2 cups or so of powdered sugar in the icing recipe. Most recipes usually have a lot more powdered sugar than that. I'm not big into sweets (surprising, with all the cake I've been making), and I really like that this icing is kind of sweet, but really tastes like cream cheese and orange. Anyway, while you're making yours, go ahead and taste it after 2 cups of icing sugar is added, and then decide if you want more.
Enjoy!
Cara Cara Orange Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 250 grams (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- ½ cup orange juice (from about 2 oranges)
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (from about 1 orange)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
Frosting:
- 8 oz (one package) cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup (one stick) butter, room temperature)
- 250 grams (about 2 cups) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Grease 2 cake pans (I used one 8-inch round cake pan and 1 horse shaped pan, but you can use 2 8-inch round cake pans)
- In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the milk, orange juice, orange zest, yogurt, vanilla, eggs and sugar. Sift in the dry mixture and whisk together just until combined.
- Pour into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until done.
- Let cool completely.
- To make the frosting, whip up the cream cheese with the butter until light and airy.
- Add powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, orange zest and juice and whip until smooth. Ice cooled cakes.
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Enjoy your day!
Cara Cara oranges are so delicious. This cake sounds divine. Love the frosting. This would be a great brunch item, and also the perfect end to a delicious meal.
Yes, it would be nice for a spring brunch!
I have been meaning to bake an orange cake since long and your post just reminded me of that. I love orange cakes and I love your post. May be I should use this recipe and try.
Thanks, I hope you try it out 🙂
This really appeals to me - I love a citrus cake and like you, I prefer my desserts not too sweet, so I would follow this recipe exactly.
Thanks Nicole!
Your cake looks delicious, I love orange in a cake. I've not come across Cara Cara oranges before, I'm not sure they're available here in the UK but I should imagine the recipe would work with a sweet orange.
I'm sure it would work with a sweet orange. Cara Cara's are a cross between two navel oranges, and kind of pinkish-red on the inside (but not as bright as a blood orange).
I've never heard of Cara Cara Oranges but really want some now. Your cake looks delicious and the icing looks perfect.
Thanks Gillian!
This orange cake looks delicious. The icing sounds perfect. I'll be putting this one on my "to-make" list. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks!
Thanks Mark, I hope you enjoy it 🙂
You had me at cara cara oranges! Ooh, to candy them as a topping...that would be divine with this cake. Going to give this a try!
Oh ya, I'll have to try that, thanks!
It looks lovely! I made similar mistake recently with my parsnip cake, I used too large tin, nevertheless it tasted the same good. I can imagine how good your cake had to taste, so fresh and fragrant...
Thanks Margot, it's a really nice cake 🙂
This looks delicious! I love the flavor of fresh orange so this is perfect to make for the Spring. Can't wait to try!
Thanks!
Ha! I really want to see the horse cake now! This is a stunner, for sure, and I love the fresh, bright flavors!
It was pretty funny. I thought decorating it with orange peel would help. It did not. 😉 haha Thanks for the comment!
Oh my goodness, this looks divine! Love all the specks of zest throughout the cream cheese frosting!
Thank you Nicole!
These are perfect for Valentine’s day….I love the beet dye (not sure why people feel the need to correct spelling on a food blog)…congrats to your brother.
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
I got a lot of pulp in my fresh Cara Cara juice. Should I strain it?
I don’t strain mine but if you feel you’ve got quite a bit then you could definitely do that.
Jacqueline
This sounds delicious! Have you tried making cupcakes with a shorter baking time?
Hi Diane,
I haven't tried that, but I'm sure it would work. Let me know if you try it, that's a great idea!
Jacqueline