Orange Marmalade Cake

By Melissa Clark

Updated September 24, 2018

  • Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
5(1,535)
Comments
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This beautiful, tender, citrus-scented loaf cake filled with bits of candied orange peel is everything you want with your afternoon tea. The key is finding the right marmalade; it needs to be the thick-cut (also known as coarse-cut) marmalade made with bitter oranges, which will be laden with big pieces of peel. Look for the British brands in the international section of your supermarket if the jam aisle lets you down. (And not give up and use the neon orange marmalade that's more like jelly.) Your reward is a fine-grained, not-too-sweet cake that will last for days well-wrapped and stored at room temperature (if you can manage not to eat it up all at once).

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

  • 215 grams coarse-cut orange marmalade (⅔ cup), divided

  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus ½ tablespoon for glaze, and more for greasing pan

  • 150 grams granulated sugar (¾ cup)

  • 2 teaspoons grated lime zest

  • ½ teaspoon grated orange zest

  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature

  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

  • 190 grams all-purpose flour (1 ½ cups)

  • 7 grams baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons)

  • 3 grams fine sea salt (¾ teaspoon)

  • 30 grams confectioners’ sugar (4 tablespoons)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

59 grams carbs; 117 milligrams cholesterol; 427 calories; 6 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 20 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 277 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein; 39 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coarsely chop any extra-large chunks of peel in the marmalade. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

  2. Step 2

    In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together softened butter, sugar, lime zest and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Beat in ⅓ cup marmalade and the orange juice.

  3. Step 3

    In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just combined.

  4. Step 4

    Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until surface of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer pan to a wire rack. Cool 10 minutes; turn cake out of pan and place on rack right-side up. Place a rimmed baking sheet under rack to catch the glaze.

  5. Step 5

    Heat remaining ⅓ cup marmalade in a small pot over low heat until melted; whisk in confectioners’ sugar and ½ tablespoon butter until smooth. Slather warm glaze over top of cake, allowing some to drizzle down the sides. Cool completely before slicing.

Tip

  • Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,535 user ratings
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Comments

Pat O

Made this last week for a dinner party -- warm with vanilla ice cream on top -- frankly did not need the ice cream -- made it 2 days ahead. Before serving I heated up a sauce of 1/2 c. OJ, 1 T gran marnier and a small pat of butter. With a chopstick, punched about 8 holes in the top of the cake and let the sauce fill the holes while I heated the cake in the oven. Divine.

joan

this is delicious- i've made it many times, but i've learned it's impossible to wrap without losing the sticky topping, so i now use the entire quantity of marmalade called for in the batter, and i sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top. it might take a few extra minutes to bake... even when i tried freezing it, unwrapped, and then wrapped it, it was too sticky and the glaze came off. it freezes well, though

Jan

To Constance Theodore, I use Trappist Seville Orange Marmalade regularly. It tastes much like Dundee for less money. America's Test Kitchen recommends it highly. This cake recipe looks wonderful and I will use the Trappist marmalade in it.

Lea + Carolyn + Maia

Hello fellow bakers! Just made this wonderful recipe. We decided to go the cupcake pan route and throughly enjoyed it. Took about 23 minutes in the oven. Some caramelized orange peel on top tied the whole shabang together. Thanks so much for this recipe NYT. This is why we support the press. 🙌

JB

made as instructed except that i tripled the recipe for a 9x13 glass pyrex! it was delicious—the bitterness of the peels helped to cut the sweetness so it wasn’t overpowering, and the cake was pleasantly moist. i did weigh all of the ingredients, and i ended up baking for about 55 minutes. edges got a wee bit dark by the time the center was cooked but the cake had a great texture, crumb, and flavor. oh, and the best jam i could find was the bonne maman orange marmalade, and it was so tasty. will make again!

Rick

l made this with GF Flour, Cara Cara orange juice/zest and some blood orange/meyer lemon marmalade that I had made the previous week.This is going into the permanent rotation.

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