Marmalade Tea Cake

Okay, here’s the recipe for the orange marmalade cake WITH the recipe for it! It’s a wonderfully fragrant cake with a tender crumb, and I’ve made so many of them lately that I could practically do it in my sleep now. Recipe below the jump.

I mentioned on my website (Voodoo & Sauce!) that the lemon-poppyseed tea cake can easily be converted to an orange cake by merely subbing the lemony stuff for orangey stuff, but you also make other tweaks to alter and improve the flavor, like using 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1/4 neutral (e.g., canola, corn, &c.) oil. Or instead of buttermilk you can just add a few tablespoons of powdered buttermilk and then use regular whole milk for the liquid. You can sub some of the milk (say, 1/4 cup of it) for marmalade instead of orange juice. Add a pinch of cardamom. Put some diced orange zest on top of the icing. It’s just cake, so knock yourself out. 🍊 🍰 🍊 🍰#cake #citrus #oranges #marmalade #baking #teatime #tea #teacake #winter #instayum #instafood #instagood #cakesofinstagram #icing #foodstagram #buzzfeast #taste #foodgawker #gluten #sugar #dessert #sweets #treats

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Marmalade Cake

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a 9.25″ x 5.25″ loaf pan and line the center with a slip of parchment.

Whisk together in a large bowl:
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp powdered buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt

In a 2-cup measuring cup, stir together:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup marmalade (or use juice mixed with chunks of the orange flesh)
1/2 cup neutral oil (canola, corn, etc.; this is also REALLY nice if you use half olive oil and half regular oil)
2 eggs
1 tsp good vanilla

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring until just combined (don’t overmix). Scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. If the cake begins to get too brown too early, loosely drape a piece of foil over the top — it’s a good idea to take a peek about halfway through baking to make sure all’s going well in there. When the cake is finished, turn it out onto a cooling rack set over a baking pan, and let it cool for about twenty minutes for icing.

For the icing, stir together:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
a few drops of orange bitters (optional but adds pizzazz)

After the cake has cooled, drizzle the icing over the top. If you prefer the icing thicker, add more powdered sugar, or if you like it more drizzly (good for soaking into the cake), add more juice.