Orange Marmalade Cake

 

I have one more great idea for a “sweetener for tea” (besides love and scandal ~~ How Downton Abbey!). . .  the recipe for Orange Marmalade Cake! Making this cake, I hope, will make everyone feel like the winner that you actually already ARE!

I’ll put the full recipe at the bottom, so you can print it out. Don’t worry about amounts here, this is just for the basic How To. First you start with a jar of thick-cut orange Marmalade. Luckily we had brought this home from England with us . . . and it was perfect. But you can get the good stuff in any grocery store.

It should be full of rough-cut orange-peel. This is also fabulous on buttered toast, btw. And as many of you know, it makes a delicious jam mixed with my Cranberry Sauce. I know, I digress, but I can’t help it . . . no matter the season, when I think of this easy recipe, my mouth begins to water, and I have to give it!

ORANGE MARMALADE AND CRANBERRY SAUCE JAM
3 c. fresh, washed, cranberries
1 c. sugar
(That’s 3 parts cranberries (frozen are fine) to one part sugar (this recipe serves six, you don’t have to make that much if you don’t need it). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the cranberries into an ungreased casserole and pour the sugar over, don’t stir. Put into oven, stirring occasionally as they cook, until the berries just begin to pop, about 35 min. Remove from oven, serve hot or cold with chicken dinners, or even with chocolate cake.  Mix the leftover cranberrie sauce half and half with pre-made orange marmalade, pour into jars . . .  delicious on scones, toast, Boston Brown Bread, and biscuits, and wonderful as a tea-time gift for your friends.❤️

Okay, back to the cake . . .

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter a loaf pan. Into a med-sized mixing bowl, pour ¾ c. granulated sugar over a stick and a half of room temperature unsalted butter.

Use your nifty microplane zester (or grater) to take the zest from one lime . . . add it to the bowl along with . . .

The zest of a half of an orange.

Pull out your trusty hand mixer, and cream everything together, for maybe five minutes, scraping down the bowl every so often …

Until the batter is light and fluffy and speckled with colorful citrus peel . . .

Beat in three large room-temperature eggs, one at a time,

Then add  ⅓c. marmalade, and 2 TB. fresh orange juice from the zested orange . . .

In another bowl, whisk together 1 ½ c. unsifted flour (stir lightly with fork before measuring), 1 ½ tsp. baking powder, and ¾ tsp. salt.

With a spatula, fold dry ingredients into batter until just combined . . .

Put the batter into the buttered loaf pan and into the oven for about 50 min . . .

. . . until lightly brown and a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and set the cake upright on a wire rack to cool ten minutes. (Put the rack on a cookie sheet so when you spoon on the glaze (below), the pan will catch the drips).

Make the Marmalade Glaze as the cake bakes . . .  Put ⅓c. marmalade into a small saucepan over low heat until melted; stir in ¼ c. powdered sugar, and 1 TB. butter until melted.

Spoon warm glaze over slightly-cooled cake and let some drizzle down the sides. Cool completely (if you can) before slicing.

And voila! Zee Marmalade Cake in all her glory. Good enough, I daresay, for Vanna!

I cut mine in half and took part to my next-door girlfriend Lowely.

And that’s it, all that’s left is to do the dishes . . . so easy!

M A R M A L A D E    C A K E

  • 1 ½ sticks butter (¾c.), room temp.
  • ¾c. granulated sugar
  • zest of one lime
  • zest of ½ orange
  • 3 lg. eggs, room temp.
  • ⅓ c. rough-cut orange marmalade (and another ⅓ c. below, for Glaze)
  • 2 TB. fresh-squeezed orange juice
  • 1 ½ c. all-purpose flour, fluff with fork before measuring
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¾ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×5 loaf pan. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer (hand or otherwise), about 5 min, until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl periodically.  Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in  ⅓c. marmalade and the orange juice.  In another bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Fold them gently into the batter until just combined. Put batter into loaf pan and bake 50 min. until golden brown ~ knife into center of cake should come out clean. Remove from oven and cool 10 min. Put a wire rack on a cookie sheet. Turn cake out of pan and place it on rack right-side- up. While cooling, prepare Glaze:

In small saucepan, heat together until melted: ⅓c. marmalade, 1 Tb. butter, ¼c. powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cake, allowing Glaze to drizzle down sides. Cool completely before serving.💛