Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (2024)

This Portuguese Orange Cake is moist and fragrant, with the most alluring bright orange flavour.

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (1)

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1This Portuguese Orange Cake recipe is authentic.

2Portuguese Orange Cake is moist and fragrant, with the most alluring bright flavour.

3Other Citrusy Desserts You’ll Love

4Portuguese Orange Cake

This Portuguese Orange Cake recipe is authentic.

It was shared with my by my friend Cherie who is married to a Portuguese man with a major penchant for the orange cake of his country. I realize it hasn’t even been a week since I posted a Lemon Pound Cake recipe, but I don’t often hearanyone complain about too much cake.

Cherie bakes it regularly and it’s a treat I look forward to when I pop by for play dates – our sons were born on the same day in the same hospital!

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (2)

Portuguese Orange Cake is moist and fragrant, with the most alluring bright flavour.

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (3)

It leans slightly more toward bitterness than the tartness you might expect from citrus desserts – this is owing to the lashings of zest beaten into the batter. Don’t worry, it’s not bitter-bitter, just enough to be intriguing.

It’s a sponge cake of sorts, with egg whites folded in at the last minute to lighten the batter, but with more moisture than the airy sponge cakes you may have had. Both the zest and juice of three oranges are involved, so it is wonderfully orange-y.

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (4)

Make sure to bring all of your ingredients to room temperature before you bake – cold eggs or oranges will cause the butter to seize up.

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (5)
Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (6)

Serve with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, a fluffy dollop of whipped cream, or a scoop of softened vanilla ice cream. Leftovers freeze well!

Other Citrusy Desserts You’ll Love

  • This moist Blood Orange Cake with pretty blood orange glaze.
  • A wonderful Portuguese Orange Cake recipe – very delicious.
  • This Lemon Curd Cake is definitely a must-try for citrus lovers.
  • Lemon Curd Cookies can’t be missed either.
  • Love citrus, love chocolate? This Chocolate Orange Cake is for you.
  • This Cranberry Lemon Cake is a long-standing favorite.

Of course, can’t forget this recipe for orange pound cake with orange glaze, baked in a pretty bundt pan.

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (7)

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Portuguese Orange Cake

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Servings 9

Dessert

Portuguese

Keyword Orange Cake, Portuguese Orange Cake

Ingredients

  • cup 150 grams butter, softened
  • 1 ¼ cups 250 grams granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs separated, room temperature
  • 3 large oranges room temperature
  • 2 cups 9 oz/250 grams all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease an 8×8″ baking dish or line with parchment paper.

  • Beat butter and sugar on medium speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each. With mixer on low speed, add the zest and juice from all three oranges. The mixture will appear curdled at first – that’s ok. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until it comes together, pausing to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.

  • In a separate bowl, whisk flour and baking powder. With mixer speed on low, gradually beat into the butter mixture until just incorporated.

  • In another bowl, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the cake batter to lighten it up, then gently fold in the rest. (Use a light hand so you don’t deflate the whites.) Scrape batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, until top feels springy when gently pressed and tester inserted in centre comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 382kcalCarbohydrates: 55gProtein: 6gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 109mgSodium: 185mgPotassium: 141mgFiber: 2gSugar: 32gVitamin A: 631IUVitamin C: 23mgCalcium: 63mgIron: 2mg

Keyword Orange Cake, Portuguese Orange Cake

Last Updated on February 20, 2024 by Jennifer Pallian BSc, RD

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (11)

maria

4 years ago

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (12)
best orange recipe ever! have made this 3 times and everything is perfect. light, fluffy, full of flavour and such an easy recipe compared to others which use sooo many ingredients or sour cream or buttermilk…so glad you shared this!

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (13)

Andrea

4 years ago

Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (14)
Can this be doubled? I need a bigger cake

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (15)

Oktavia

4 years ago

Delicious !, I love the orange flavor is coming through very well. I made in a cake form size 8,5‘x8,5‘ and it was to small. I would recommend 1-2inches bigger size than I’m using. I also just add only 200g of sugar and it’s still was to sweet. Next time i will just add only 150g should
Be enough. Because the orange I had was sweets already. Anyway So fluffy and delicious… yum yum yum ! ?

8

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Maggie

5 years ago

Can you freeze this recipe

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (17)

Dan Melendez

5 years ago

Just a thought, what do you mean by fold the egg whites after being whipped?

-1

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (18)

Tanya Mills

5 years ago

Hi! I’d love to try this cake out. 🙂 Just wondering how much zest to add. All the zest from the 3 oranges? Thanks!

-1

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Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the special cake in Portugal? ›

4. Pão de Ló de Ovar – The Decadent Sponge Cake. The Pão de Ló de Ovar is a traditional Portuguese sponge cake that comes from the town of Ovar, a town in Portugal. Known for its moist, fluffy texture and rich, eggy flavor, this delicacy is a beloved dessert across the country.

Where did orange cake come from? ›

Orange and almond cake is a traditional Sephardic Jewish Passover dessert, with origins in the Iberian peninsula. Variations of this cake can be found from Spain, throughout the Mediterranean, and further east, to Iran.

Why is my orange cake dry? ›

If you have too much flour in a recipe and not enough fat, like butter or oil, your cake is going to be dry and hard. For best results, I would encourage you to use a scale when baking, but if you don't have a scale, then just make sure you're using measuring cups correctly.

What is Greek orange cake made of? ›

Portokalopita is an old-fashioned Greek orange cake made with orange zest, Greek yogurt, and dried crumbled phyllo folded into the cake batter. It's known for its zesty orange flavor as well as its sticky sweet texture thanks to the orange syrup poured over the baked cake.

What is the most famous Portuguese pastry? ›

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart)

Pastel de Nata are the most famous Portuguese dessert. They are deliciously irresistible. The combination of blistered, caramelized custard and flaky golden brown puff pastry is a match made in heaven.

How do you get rid of bitterness in orange cake? ›

Solution: boil the oranges. This removes the bitterness as well as softening the oranges to make them “jammy”, which makes the cake damp and sticky inside.

How to make cake more moist? ›

10 WAYS TO MAKE CAKE MOIST
  1. USE THE CORRECT TEMPERATURE AND BAKING TIME. Consider lowering your oven temperature slightly when baking a cake. ...
  2. USE VEGETABLE OIL. ...
  3. USE BUTTERMILK INSTEAD OF MILK. ...
  4. ADD INSTANT PUDDING MIX. ...
  5. ADD MAYONNAISE. ...
  6. USE SIMPLE SYRUP OR GLAZE. ...
  7. USE CAKE FLOUR. ...
  8. DON'T OVERMIX.

What makes a cake fluffy vs dense? ›

Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness. Aka a dense cake.

What is funeral cake made of? ›

Technically, funeral cake is a chocolate sheet cake with fudge icing and topped with crunchy pecans and big enough to feed a crowd—which you may recognize as Texas Sheet Cake.

What's in a Robert Redford cake? ›

Whatever you want to call it, this cake involves chocolate and all kinds of other sweet indulgences that may help explain its name (with apologies, perhaps, to the actor Robert Redford). This is a popular, irresistible chocolate cake dessert with loads of chocolate, caramel topping, candy bars, and whipped topping.

What is a Picasso cake? ›

Picasso: Vanilla cake layered with cream cheese filling and a strawberry blend. Finished with vanilla buttercream, salted caramel and vanilla macarons and a white chocolate sail.

Why is Madeira cake so good? ›

Why you'll love Nigella's Madeira Cake: It's light and fluffy. It's made with ingredients that most people have in their kitchen. It can be easily adapted.

Why is it called Madeira cake? ›

Origin. It is sometimes mistakenly thought to originate from the Madeira Islands but was in fact named after Madeira wine from the islands, popular in England in the mid-1800s and often served with the cake.

What is a St Laurent cake? ›

Description. Layers of puff pastry and custard cream covered with refreshing whipping cream and decorated with mini cream puffs.

What is the traditional home of the cake in Lisbon? ›

The Casa Pasteis De Belem is the traditional home of the delicious Pastel de Nata, that is the staple food of the sweet toothed Portuguese.

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