Orange Tea Cake

On one of the blogs I follow, I found a nice easy recipe for this Orange Tea Cake. As the boys have now ...ahem... BOTH started school I thought I would come home and make something I could put in their lunchboxes for the next couple of days. I immediately thought of this as it was easy, looked pretty tasty and seemed like the perfect thing for a lunchbox and for me when I'm having a quiet cup of tea in my now quiet household after the busy school holidays. I was not wrong. I took The Food Librarian's advice and just sprinkled icing sugar on top, but an orange glaze would also be good, as would a chocolate buttercream icing (as trialled by Reuben) with the buttercream I made earlier for the eclairs (see the previous post)). This cake is light and full of orange flavour. I think rubbing the zest through the sugar really makes the difference here. I have done this before with lemon cake and have noticed the bigger flavour hit you get doing this. Anyway give this a go especially if you want something easy to bake and easy to eat.


Orange Tea Cake (from The Food Librarian)

115gm butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
4 tsp finely grated fresh orange zest
2 large eggs
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c fresh orange juice
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and line a 20 cm square tin.
Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.

Rub the zest with the granulated sugar until damp which will make the sugar very fragrant.
Cream the butter and sugar (with zest) until creamy.

Add eggs one at a time then add the sour cream and orange juice and mix.


Add flour mixture until just incorporated being careful to not overmix.

Bake about 30-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack.


When completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

Pour yourself and your friend a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy!