By Sara Bonisteel
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(454)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This cake appeared in The Times in 1954 as Halloween Cake, the centerpiece for a children’s party. When you strip away the original instructions for decoration (dyed yellow frosting and a black cat of piped chocolate), you’re left with a luscious citrus cake that works for any occasion, All Hallows’ Eve included.
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Ingredients
Yield:10-12 servings
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pans
- 2¼cups/270 grams cake flour
- 1tablespoon/14 grams double-acting baking powder
- 1teaspoon/6 grams salt
- 1½cups /300 grams sugar
- 1tablespoon/18 grams orange zest (from 2 oranges)
- 1teaspoon/3 grams lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 1cup/237 milliliters whole milk
- 2eggs
- 4tablespoons/61 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1pound/453 grams confectioners sugar
- 1pasteurized egg
- 2tablespoons/30 milliliters whole milk
- ½teaspoon/2.5 milliliters orange extract
- ¼teaspoon/1 gram salt
- 1ounce unsweetened chocolate/29 grams, melted
- ½cup/100 grams chocolate chips or candy corn, finely chopped (optional)
For the Cake
For the Frosting
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
481 calories; 15 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 84 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 64 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 337 milligrams sodium
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
Step
1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two nine-inch round pans, line bottoms with parchment paper and grease the paper. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Step
2
In a separate bowl, cream butter and grated orange and lemon zests. Sift dry ingredients into creamed butter and add about ¾ cup (177 milliliters) milk. Mix until flour is dampened then beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Add remaining milk and eggs and beat on low for 1 minute more.
Step
3
Divide batter between two pans and smooth the top. Bake for 25 minutes or until the cake rebounds to touch when pressed.
Step
4
Cool cake in pans on cooling rack for 10 minutes, and then remove from pan. Discard parchment paper and turn cakes right side up on racks. Let cool to room temperature.
Step
5
Meanwhile, make the frosting: Cream butter and gradually add about a third of the confectioners sugar, blending well after each addition. Add pasteurized egg, then remaining sugar and milk, using enough liquid to give a good spreading consistency. Add orange extract and salt and blend thoroughly.
Step
6
Remove ½ cup of frosting to a small bowl and stir in melted chocolate. Cover with a damp cloth or paper towel and save for decorating cake. Place one round on cake plate and spread with orange frosting. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate or candy corn, if using. Top with second cake layer. Frost sides from top edge down over the sides. Spread remaining orange frosting on top and spread to edge. Pipe chocolate frosting. Let stand till frosting is dry.
Tip
- This recipe will make 24 cupcakes. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.
Ratings
4
out of 5
454
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Cooking Notes
Sara Bonisteel
It gives the frosting extra sheen and helps it set. If you choose to omit the egg, you might want to use heavy cream instead of milk for the frosting and increase the amount by a tablespoon or two.
Juliet Jones
I had some homemade lemon curd I needed to use up, and I was looking for a simple layer cake to put it in. This fit the bill. Quick and easy to make, and delicious with lemon curd. I did not make any of the frosting, but put raspberries on top of the lemon curd, and served with a dollop of whipped cream on the side. Otherwise, the cake by itself is a little on the heavy/dry side.
Andrea
Is the egg necessary for the frosting?
Michelle
I was looking for a lemon recipe (I have a tree in my backyard) and decided to try this. The cake is delicious, easy to make, but dry. I frosted it with almond extract buttercream (instead of vanilla) and it complimented the cake beautifully.
David
Some recipes call for a small amount of corn syrup to be added to give thing the shine that you speak of. Could this be used also? I know some are not a fan of corn syrup but it can have its use.
kaiya
I found it took about 16-17 minutes at 375 degrees for cupcakes.
Linda
Great cake! Because I wanted was looking for a lemon only cake, I used lemon zest in place of orange, substituted lemon oil for the extract and skipped the chocolate. Also substituted oat milk for the whole milk and iced it as a traditional cake. Was a great birthday cake!
Tambling
I found this cake to be cloying and sickly sweet. Next time I would reduce the sugar significantly.
Christine
This cake was fantastic, and will be on repeat for special occasions. I used 3/4 cup whole yogurt with 1/4 cup lowfat milk which was on hand, all lemon for citrus, and opted out of the Halloween to-do. It was a huge birthday cake hit. Not a huge rise, but delicious and a huge summer time crowd-pleaser.
Christine
PS also used about half amount of confectioner's sugar and put it in the fridge - it was great, does not need a box of sugar to make it sing.
Noodle
Used 1 1/4 cup cake flour (appr.) and 1 cup white flour + 1/4 cup corn starch beat batter for pretty long time until fluffy batter was quite fluffy and cake texture OUT OF THIS WORLD
Claire
Because of the comments about the cake being dry, I added 4 TBS butter and an egg to the recipe. I also doubled the amount of chocolate in the frosting and just made it a chocolate frosting because I don't have the tools to decorate a cake. I also put raspberry spread from TJs on the bottom layer, as suggested by another commenter. I cut the sugar in the cake by half and also cut the sugar in the frosting, probably by a cup or so, and no egg. My family loved it!
Jenn A.
The picture shows frosting other than chocolate...what type is it?
Noodle
i used the chocolate frosting for the entire cake, added orange zest and juice to the frosting, and decorated with chocolate sprinkles. was a big hit as a birthday cake. everyone loved the distinct orange-chocolate combination. i found frosting a bit too sweet even after adding dark chocolate and orange zest but everyone loved it. a very distinctive cake worth trying!
Betsyr
My husband made this cake for my birthday, with some adjustments. He cut the sugar in the cake by one third with no noticeable lack of sweetness, and added extra orange to the batter. He also added orange zest to the icing. We both thought the icing was much too sweet and will try an orange and/or lemon buttercream next time. We might double the amount of chocolate too. The cake was lovely and we hope to try it again!
Sue
This cake is okay. I’m a citrus lover and I was expecting to taste more of it in the cake. I read the recipe twice, and I made it correctly. I didn’t get the rise that’s shown in the photo.
MDG
As others have said, this cake is a little on the dry side, but served with a scoop of nice vanilla ice cream, it is pretty delicious. I marbled the chocolate frosting all over the cake, so that most bites had a bit of chocolate flavor.
cba
This recipe should have stayed in the ‘50s! Too dry and dense (I even tried soaking w/ a Cointreau syrup) and the frosting wasn’t my favorite.
Kevin
I made this cake and I love it’s flavours however each layer didn’t rise very much. I used plain flour as in the UK we do not have cake flour. Is that the reason for the lack of rise?
Juliet Jones
@Kevin: I'm originally from England, too. Cake flour is very similar to plain flour, it's just more "fluffy", if you like. It has less protein than bread flour or even all-purpose flour. Maybe the problem was your baking powder; stale baking powder doesn't work as well. But, this cake is not intended to rise very much. Two dome-shaped cakes would be hard to sandwich together.
Anne Allen
I don't bake often, and made this as a birthday cake for my boyfriend. I taught myself to pasteurize the egg. I used a meyer lemon I had grown. It was heavy and dense and lacked the crumb shown in the picture. Did I not cream the butter long enough before adding the other ingredients? I find in the past that using cake flour, as I did here, sometimes results in a denser cake. I see from other's comments this has happened with this cake before. Tips are welcome, thank you.
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