Follow our complete, step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions to make this very moist, very delicious, Orange Slice Cake. We actually use those Orange Slice candies to make this cake. Similar to a fruit cake, but wait until you taste it. Printable recipe included.
Orange Slice Cake Recipe
Originally published: November 19, 2017
When you first hear about a cake that uses those orange gummy type candies, you might have second thoughts about how it will taste. Do not be afraid. Venture forward. You will not be disappointed.
After trying it, you might think it is akin to a fruit cake, and you’d probably be right. That was my first thoughts as well. And, like you I had wondered about those gummy orange candies. How would they turn out after being baked in a cake. Let’s just say they turn out delicious.
This is a recipe that my Mama submitted as one of her favorites in our “Stewart Family Favorites” cookbook which our annual family reunion put together a few years back. It was a book of favorite recipes from members of my mothers side of the family and I’ve placed many of them here on Taste of Southern.
While I baked this in a bundt style pan, I think it would be great to bake this as several smaller cakes and give them as gifts for the holidays. It’s fairly simple to make, doesn’t have a lot of expensive items in it, and who doesn’t love a homemade gift of food at Christmas time, or at any time of the year?
You will make the cake, then you make a simple mixture of orange juice and confectioners sugar that you pour over the cake, just out of the oven and still in the pan. The juice and sugar combination soaks into the baked cake and sits overnight before being cut and served. It really makes for a very moist cake.
Those “gummy” pieces of orange candy turn out really great, soft and easy to chew, so nothing to worry about there. I really think you’ll like it if you decide to try it. It does appear to be a fruit cake, but it’s certainly not one of those dry old cakes filled with candied fruit pieces that you might be thinking about.
It’s not overly sweet either, despite the orange juice and confectioners sugar that is added after it’s baked. I hope you’ll like it and that you’ll share your results and comments with us in the section at the end of the printable recipe.
Ready to give it a try? Alright then, grab those Orange Slices and head to the kitchen. Let’s Get Cooking!
Orange Slice Cake: You’ll need these ingredients.
Begin by slicing the orange candies.
These are a bit gummy, therefore a bit sticky when trying to cut them.
I actually did them one at a time, cutting each one into 6 or 7 pieces. It didn’t take but just a few minutes, and I didn’t have to fight a bunch of little pieces trying to cling to my knife.
Slice the dates into small pieces.
I couldn’t find the already chopped Dates, so I bought what was available and cut them up myself.
They are also a bit on the sticky side, so I cut them up one at a time as well.
I placed my pecans in a small bowl and used this hand held food chopper to chop them up.
You can always buy the pecan pieces and skip this step. I almost always buy the whole ones and yes, I paid a little extra for them just to have to turn around and chop them up. I might be guilty of eating the whole pieces straight out of the bag though. Smile.
Place all the chopped and sliced up pieces in a medium sized mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the pieces with the 1/2 cup of reserved flour.
Jump in with both hands and toss and turn the pieces in the flour until they are all well coated. Break apart any of the orange slices or date slices that try to stick together. We don’t want big lumps in our cake.
Add the coconut, and toss it again until everything is coated.
I’m using frozen coconut that I had let thaw out in the refrigerator. I then just opened the bag and dumped the coconut in on top of the other pieces. Should I do this again, I think I would spread the coconut out on a plate for an hour or so beforehand so it could dry out a bit. It had some moisture which kind of dissolved the flour, but everything turned out okay in the end.
Supposedly, the flour is used to keep the sticky pieces separated, and it’s suppose to keep the fruit and candy pieces from just sinking to the bottom of the pan when it’s all mixed into the batter later.
Just set this aside for now.
Sift the remaining cups of flour.
If you don’t have a sifter, use a whisk to fluff up the flour once you have it in a bowl. Sift a little more than you think you’ll need for three cups, because we will be measuring the flour AFTER it’s sifted.
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. That’s right… a large one, you’re going to need it.
Add the sugar.
Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. This is NOT smooth.
This will be what it looks like a couple of minutes after you start mixing with a mixer. I used my hand mixer, on a lower speed and kept it running for a couple of minutes. I use to think this was all it took to cream some sugar and butter together until smooth.
This is more like what you want. This IS smooth.
I set the kitchen timer for EIGHT minutes, turned the mixer on, then just hung on for the full eight minutes. It may be hard to tell from the photo, but this is more of the texture you’re looking for when creaming the sugar and butter together. Just hang in there, you can do it.
Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl every once in awhile.
Crack the eggs in a separate bowl.
I always suggest you crack eggs in a different bowl. That way, if you happen to get a piece of shell in the bowl, you can easily see it and remove it. It happens to all of us sometime or another.
Add the eggs, one at a time, into the creamed butter and sugar.
Mix them in until they are just combined into the batter. Repeat adding the eggs, one at a time, until you have them all mixed into the batter.
Measure out you buttermilk, then measure out one level teaspoon of Baking Soda.
Add the baking soda to the buttermilk.
Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk. You can’t see it here, but the liquid in this cup almost doubled in volume once the baking soda was added and stirred in.
Add one level cup of the sifted flour into the bowl. Mix this just until it’s combined. Do not over mix the batter at this point.
Add half of the buttermilk mixture. Mix this in just until combined.
You’ll repeat this process until all the flour and the milk have been mixed into the batter. You always start with flour, then end with flour. Like this…
One cup flour
Half cup buttermilk
One cup flour
Half cup buttermilk
One cup flour
Just that simple.
Prepare your baking pan.
I’m using a Bundt pan, but any type of tube pan will work. I’m also using a oil spray that contains flour so that’s all I have to do here. I just want to make sure that I fill all the little nooks and crannies inside the pan to be sure they are coated with the oil and flour spray.
You could just use some cooking oil to grease your pan, then add a bit of flour to the pan and shake it all around the inside until you have it greased and floured.
Place all the orange slice mixture into the batter. I told you that you would need a big bowl, remember?
Use a large spoon and gently fold the dry ingredients into the batter. Do this just until it’s all combined together.
You should have a batter that looks like this.
Spoon the batter into your baking pan, making sure that you have it evenly spread all around the inside of the pan.
I just placed a spoon full of batter in one spot of the pan, rotated the pan a bit, then added another big spoonful of batter. I then used the back of the spoon to gently spread it out into the pan.
Once filled, I lifted the pan up about 6 inches high and just dropped it onto my counter. Do this a couple of times as it helps release any air bubbles that might have formed in the batter.
Place the pan in an oven that has been preheated to 250F degrees.
Use the center rack in your oven, and let the cake bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until it’s done. Mine took about 2 hours and 20 minutes, but I think I should have let it bake for the full 2 1/2 hours. I just didn’t want to burn it.
Normally, I’d tell you to test your cake with a wooden toothpick to see if it was done. You can still use a toothpick, but a wooden skewer will work even better because of the thickness of the cake.
Insert the toothpick/skewer into the center of the cake then pull it out. If it comes out clean, without a lot of wet crumbs clinging to it, then your cake should be done. If you see some crumbs clinging to the toothpick, slide the cake back in the oven for a few more minutes until it tests done.
A few minutes before you take your cake out, place the confectioners sugar and the orange juice in a mixing bowl.
Stir the two together until the sugar dissolves in the orange juice.
When your cake is done, remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack or folded towel to cool.
I also used the skewer to poke a few more holes around in the cake. Here’s why.
As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, pour the orange juice and confectioners sugar mixture all over the cake.
I hesitate to call this a glaze since it’s going to absorb down into the cake, but it sort of is a glaze.
Now, let this sit out on your countertop, just like it is, overnight. That’s right… overnight.
Next day, remove the cake from the pan.
I must admit, I was afraid this would really stick to the pan even though I knew I had properly prepared my pan before adding the batter. The cake hadn’t pulled away from the side of the pan any at all and I didn’t want to try running a knife around the inside edge because I thought that would mess up the cake. It works with regular layer cakes, but I don’t think it would work well with this one.
I placed a dinner plate on top of the cake, then holding the plate and cake pan together, I flipped it over.
The cake didn’t move at all.
I decided to just walk away and let it sit there to see if the cake would eventually fall. It took about three minutes, but I heard it when the cake released from the pan and dropped into the plate.
I was really excited to see that it came out almost perfect.
The cake was a bit difficult to slice. It wanted to fall apart while cutting it, but it was very moist. I may have tried to cut it too soon after I turned it out of the pan. Still, it tasted great. Smile.
Enjoy!
