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The name of this delicious Citrus Glazed Orange Cardamom Loaf Cake recipe is a mouthful! But it is a delicious mouthful and there are so many good parts to it, I didn’t want to miss highlighting something wonderful! The cardamom is such an interesting, floral spice and combined with the citrus and vanilla it is just indescribably good!
Last weekend 2 of my sorority sisters, Jodie and Abby flew out to visit me. I was so excited to have them come out, I could hardly stand it! Trav flew out to visit some of his buddies for the weekend, so Abs, Jode and I had a true girl weekend with time to chat and drink wine and eat! It was amazing. Abby is a huge fan of cardamom. She is the only one I know who will order a cocktail purely for the Cardamom bitters! hehe! So, between her love of Cardamom, and my having a beautiful bunch of oranges to use, I was inspired!
This cake is the perfect, “make ahead” cake to serve your guests in the morning with a cup of coffee, or in the afternoon with a cup of tea…or like we did, both! I was afraid I had overcooked it, but Abby assured me that it would be perfect with a cup of tea, like a biscotti! How blessed am I to have her?! ♥️
Noteworthy Tips…
Another nice thing about this recipe is that it makes 2 loafs! So, you will have one to enjoy, and one to give away…or, to keep in the freezer for another time. It is an easy cake to make, but there are a few steps that will really make a difference. First of all, make sure you take time to beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. It takes about 3-5 minutes, but it is a very worthy step! Also, alternate adding the buttermilk mixture and the dry ingredients together. This will keep the batter creamy and mixed thoroughly.
Every oven cooks slightly different, so be careful not to over bake your cakes. You can do this by checking your cakes with a toothpick after about 40 minutes. If the toothpick comes out clean, your cakes are done! Another thing is to make sure you utilize the step that calls for the lemon simple syrup. Pour the lemon simple syrup over the top about 10 minutes after pulling them from the oven (or drizzle one of the cakes with this Lavender Simple Syrup!). Trust me, it won’t make them soggy, it will soak down in and make them deliciously….I don’t want to say it, but I have to…moist! (ew!)
An interesting and unique spin on this Loaf Cake Recipe is to use this Ginger Simple Syrup instead of the lemon simple syrup!
Finally, wait until the cakes are completely cooled before glazing them. If you try glazing while the cakes are still warm, the glaze will melt and run off the sides. You want it to drip down the sides, but not completely off the cake! Trust me, have patience…I am speaking from experience! ha!
Helpful Tools…
This recipe calls for juicing a lot of oranges and a lemon, so a good juicer is important. If you want to go an old school route, you can use something like this hand juicer. It is nice because it is inexpensive and the container that collects the juice has measurements on it so you can juice exactly what you need! Also, I love Breville and this juicer is so nice! It comes with a juice container with ounces, similar to the hand juicer, but requires none of the elbow grease!
You will also need a good zester. I use this microplane zester which was a gift from my brother Greggie, and it has been so great. For this recipe, you can use a classic stand mixer, or a hand mixer. I chose a hand mixer today. Either one is perfect! You will also need some nice 8.5″x4.5″ loaf pans. For this recipe I used two different brands of pans. One of the pans I used is a nice loaf pan that I bought from Williams Sonoma a while back. It is nice and heavy duty and I love it. The other pan was this one from Amazon. It is not quite as heavy duty as the Williams Sonoma pan, but baked this bread just as nicely!
A Perfect, “love gift”…
Not only is this Glazed Orange Cardamom Cake delicious, but is so beautiful. I have had so much fun wrapping it up and giving it as gifts to friends and family. You can have fun and get creative by garnishing it with pretty spices like star anise, dried oranges. It is also fun to wrap it up in parchment paper and decorate the package with pretty pine or juniper sprigs. Finally, is so beautiful and so delicious which makes it such a pleasure to share. ♥️
Finally, if you make this Citrus Glazed Orange Cardamom Cake, I would love to hear from you! Please let me know how you liked it in the comments below. Thank you and thank you for visiting Mollie in Montana!
Citrus Glazed Orange Cardamom Cake
Ingredients
- 2 Cubes Butter (1/2 lb.), softened
- 2 ½ Cups Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Ground Cardamom
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2-3 Oranges, juiced and zested (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 lemon juiced and zested (1/4 cup)
- 3/4 cup Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Citrus Simple Syrup
- 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
Citrus Glaze
- 1/4 Cup Orange and Lemon Juice
- 2 Cups Confectioners Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 350°
- Grease 2 8½x4½" loaf pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.
- Cream Butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add zest and eggs one at a time
- Combine lemon and orange juice to create 3/4 cup
- Combine Buttermilk, 1/4 cup of the lemon and orange juice mixture and vanilla together.
- Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking salt and cardamom together into bowl.
- Add sifted flour mixture to butter and sugar mixture, alternating with Buttermilk mixture until all is fully incorporated.
- Add mixture to the 2, 8½ x 4½ loaf pans
- Bake for 45 minutes until top is browned and toothpick tester comes out clean.
- After pulling the cake from the oven, use the toothpick to poke holes sporadically in the top of the cake.
lemon Syrup
- Combine 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice and 1/2 Cup sugar in small sauce pan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Pull it from the heat as soon as sugar dissolves and before it boils.
- Once cakes are pulled from the oven, let them cool for 10 minutes and then spoon the lemon syrup mixture over the top. Let cakes cool completely
Lemon Glaze
- Once cakes have cooled, Combine 2 cups of confectioners sugar with 1/4 cup lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Whisk together with wire whisk and then drizzle over cooled cakes.
- Enjoy!
Abby Salsman says
If you like cardamom like I do, give this cake a try. SO yummy! And, if you have any good cocktail recipes with cardamom bitters let me know, ????
Thanks for sharing your gift of hospitality, Mollie. You are 1 in a million. ????
mollieinmontana says
Thank you so much, Abilene! I was so honored to make and share this cake with you!