This surprisingly light yet comforting cake is perfect served with a mug of earl grey tea on a cold afternoon. The orange is sweet without being too tangy, and the wholemeal flour makes for a moist and delightfully textured cake, balanced with creamy orange buttercream. Wholemeal flour is more nutritious than white flour too – okay, we’re not going to say this is a healthy cake, but it’s the thought that counts!
For the cake:
175g self-raising wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
175g caster sugar
175g unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 unwaxed orange, juiced and zested
For the filling:
150g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
Zest of 1 orange
For the topping:
125g icing sugar
15ml orange juice
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/GM4.
2. Grease two 20cm sandwich tins.
3. Beat together butter, sugar and orange zest until light and creamy.
4. Beat in each egg one at a time.
5. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt followed by the orange juice until well combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into your prepared tins evenly and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack, then combine the butter, icing sugar and zest to make the buttercream.
8. Spread the buttercream on one cake, then sandwich them together.
9. Little by little, add the orange juice to sifted icing sugar until thick and glossy. Spread the glace icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife, pushing it gently to the edges so drips fall down the sides.
10. Tuck in!
Sarah Hatcher
14.04.2021 at 15:58Love this! We made the sponge orange flavoured but did lime for buttercream and icing. Highly recommended
Laura Skinner
17.08.2021 at 15:25I baked this cake for my birthday. Using wholemeal flour gave it a lovely flavour. Thanks for the recipe.