Portuguese Orange Cake Recipe | Foodess.com (2024)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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