Orange Bundt Cake

This Orange Bundt Cake is brimming with the bright flavor of fresh orange zest. A vivid purple drizzle of blackberry icing couldn’t be prettier for a Spring celebration.

With a small kitchen and limited storage, I’ve weeded out most appliances, tools and pans that serve a single purpose. They just take up too much valuable real estate.

The only exception I’ve made is my beloved egg cooker, which cooks the most perfect hard boiled eggs for shrimp deviled eggs and Easter salad.

And for whatever reason, a single special bundt pan has stuck with me. I bought this pan probably over 10 years ago. I saw it in a catalog (I believe this particular shape/style was being re-released for some type of Bundt anniversary) and just knew I had to have it.

I find that Spring is a time where I make cakes more often than the rest of the year. I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with my love of light cakes with bright, fresh flavors, like citrus and berries.

This orange bundt cake recipe is a breeze to mix up, and, like my lemon curd cake and Black Forest cupcakes, it’s perfect for any special occasion, like Mother’s Day or Easter, or a Spring birthday.

What you’ll need for the orange cake recipe:

• butter – you’ll need 2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter, and they need to be room temperature.
• sugar – classic white granulated sugar is what we want for this orange bundt cake recipe.
• flour – regular all-purpose flour is best.
• eggs – you’ll need 4 large eggs, which will help leaven the cake. These also need to be room temperature.
• baking powder – the other leavener for this orange zest cake!
• milk – I tested this orange cake recipe with whole milk, because I think it’s best for baking. Buy a small bottle if you don’t normally keep it on hand (and use any extra to make a caramel coffee), it’s worth it. Again, room temperature!
• vanilla extract – this is one of the main flavorings for the cake, so be sure to use a high quality extract. Make a batch of vanilla lemonade while your cake bakes.
• orange zest – you will be zesting 2 entire oranges for this cake! I have ideas for what to do with the juice from those lemons right above the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
• salt – salt is almost always necessary in baked goods to balance the flavors.
• nonstick baking spray – this is different from standard nonstick cooking spray. Nonstick baking spray has flour added to it. The trickiest part of a bundt cake is getting it to unmold cleanly, and this will give you a leg up over regular cooking spray. Also handy to have on hand for a Meyer lemon bundt cake.

Other flavor options for the cake:

The primary flavor in this orange bundt cake recipe is a TON of orange zest. But there are other options if you’re not the biggest fan of oranges.

You could keep this a standard vanilla bundt cake by omitting the orange zest and doubling the amount of vanilla extract.

Or, you could use a different type of zest. Feel free to substitute lemon or lime zest in place of the orange zest to change up the flavor. Because oranges are so much bigger than lemons or limes, you’ll need the zest of 3 lemons or 5 limes if you go that route instead.

You can make lemon pasta with capers or a lemon rosemary cocktail with the juice from the lemons. And with the juice from the limes, you could make coconut risotto with lime shrimp or a bourbon mule.

What you’ll need for the blackberry icing for this orange bundt cake:

• blackberries – you’ll need 1/2 cup of fresh blackberries to make the icing, plus you may want some additional berries to garnish the cake. It definitely looks super pretty, so I encourage it!
• honey – to sweeten the icing. You could also use agave nectar if you happen to have some on hand from agave lemonade.
• milk – since I bought whole milk to bake the orange bundt cake, I used whole milk for the icing as well. But, any type of milk will work for the icing.
• powdered sugar – you’ll need about 1-1/2 to 2 cups, so make sure you have enough on hand to adjust the consistency of the icing as needed.

Other icing options for this orange bundt cake recipe:

Blackberries aren’t your favorite flavor? I’m bummed you’ll miss out on my tequila mojito and blackberry muffins, but no worries, because it’s super easy to make the icing for this orange cake recipe with another flavor.

Since we’re only using the juice of the blackberries to make the icing, it can be swapped out with literally any other type of juice – orange, lemon, lime, cranberry, raspberry, you name it! You’ll need 2 tablespoons of any other type of juice.