This recipe was requested by Mitch in comments of my recipe requests post. It comes with an interesting article about old fashioned cakes, and some amazing information about this recipe in particular.
This dense cake, adapted from “Bundt Cake Bliss,” by Susanna Short, has truly old-fashioned credentials: The recipe is from Short’s great-great aunt, born in 1867, and was passed down to her grandmother, who gave it to her. As odd as the direction is, yes, you process the entire orange, peel and all — Short’s grandmother used a hand-cranked grinder to do the job. The orange peel creates an intense flavor; feel free to add less if you like.
According to my calculations, this recipe is quite possibly over 200 years old. I was really taken with that idea, and looked forward to baking the cake.
The Recipe
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
If you only have a 9-cup Bundt pan, fill it about two-thirds full with batter, and use the rest for cupcakes; you should have enough for four.
Ingredients
1 unpeeled orange, washed, coarsely chopped
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2 eggs
3/4 cup each: buttermilk, finely chopped nuts
Confectioners’ sugar
Directions
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the orange and raisins in a food processor; pulse until the mixture is finely ground. Pour 1/4 cup hot water over the mixture; set aside.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the sugar-butter mixture, beating until smooth with each addition. Stir in the reserved orange-raisin mixture and the nuts. Pour batter into a greased and floured 12-cup Bundt pan.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. Let cake cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert it onto a wire rack; cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
My Alterations
I wanted to keep this cake as true to its original recipe as possible. I think the only real changes that I made was that I purposefully used a small-sized orange; I was concerned about having a cake that had too much orange rind. I used sultanas rather than raisins, but they are both dried grapes, right?
I followed the directions as closely as I could, considering I don’t have an electric mixer (yet).
The Results
This is the processed orange and sultana mixture. Looks tasty!
I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t really like nuts in cakes. However, I really liked them in this cake. The flavours were very complex; I would say that this cake has a grown-up taste to it. My five year old and three year old didn’t really like it much, although strangely enough my one year old scoffed it down as fast as possible. I thought it tasted wonderful and ate plenty myself!
Unfortunately, the cake fell apart very easily. I tried to take a decent picture of the cake, but as you can see by the top picture, it didn’t work very well. Admittedly, I did take it out of the pan when it was warm, but even after it cooled, it wasn’t easy to cut.
The Verdict
This is a very delicious cake. There is a bit more prep work than I usually go for in a cake, but it’s worth the effort. I love the idea of baking a cake from a recipe that has been enjoyed for hundreds of years.
The Rating
5/5
The taste totally wins out on this cake, even though it easily fell apart. I’ll take taste before beauty any day! It might work better as muffins.
