Good Eating Monday: Orange Slice Cake!

When I used to work at the flower shop, one of the ladies I worked was always baking different kinds of cakes. Cakes I'd never heard of, like Hummingbird Cake or Orange Slice Cake.

Since I have a sister who likes Orange Slice Candy, I looked up a recipe for Orange Slice Cake to email her and that's when I learned more about it.

What Orange Slice Cake is, is an old-fashioned cake popular in the Deep South during the Christmas season. Baked in a bundt pan, it's Southern version of a fruitcake, but with orange slice candy, nuts, dates & coconut and none of the usual candied fruit. 

It's also typically an heirloom recipe passed down from one generation to the next. 

I've decided I want to try making one sometime in January and am going to put the recipe here, because my blog is also my "recipe box." That way, when I am ready to make it, I'll have a ready-reference for the recipe!

Orange Slice Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

 1 1/2 cups white sugar*

4 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk*

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

16 oz orange slice candy, chopped*

1 cup chopped dates

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

1 1/3 cups sweet coconut

Optional: 1 Tablespoon of orange zest for more orange kick.

Glaze

1 cup orange juice

2 cups confectioners sugar

Optional: 1 Tablespoon orange mamalade

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 250 and spray a 10 inch tube or bundt pan with a flour/oil spray, such as Bakers Joy.

In a mixing bowl: combine butter & sugar and cream together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Dissolve baking soda in Buttermilk, then add to cream mixture. 

Combine flour & salt in large bowl. Add dates, orange slice candy & nuts and stir until well coated.  Gradually add flour mixture and coconut to the creamed mixture, stirring in. This will make a very stiff dough, so it will be necessary to stir with a wooden spoon or other strong spoon.

Pour batter into tube pan. Bake 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once done, remove cake from oven. 

Glaze: in a saucepan, combine confectioners sugar with orange juice and heat to a good warm temp, but not boiling, then pour immediately over hot cake while in pan.

Let cake cool 20 - 30  minutes, then turn cake out of pan onto a rack to cool completely.

*Additional Information & Notes:

*Sugar: 

The original recipe called for 2 cups sugar, but user comments suggested this cake was too sweet and recommended lessening the sugar, which is why I changed it to 1 1/2 cups. After I try it, I'll come back and note on whether this enough or not. Some users feel 1 cup would be enough.

*Buttermilk:

 If you don't have 1/2 cup buttermilk on hand, substitute 1/2 of either plain yogurt or sour cream instead.

*Chopping the Orange Slice Candy: 

It's recommended to spray your knife with cooking oil spray to make cutting the candy easier.

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Eat up, me hearties, yo-ho!