Sicilian Whole Orange Cake (Using an Entire Orange: Peel, Juice and Pulp)
Sicilian whole orange cake is a moist and delicious crowd-pleasing dessert. It is called a whole orange cake, because the entire orange is used, peel and all. Perfect for any occasion, but such a treat with a cup of tea or coffee.
My mother found the original Sicilian orange cake recipe for this divine baked treat on an Italian website, and I can’t even begin to describe how moist and fruity it is.
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The orange scent that fills your kitchen as it bakes is also heavenly! It contains a whole orange, peel and all (no seeds), and you’ll need another orange if you make the glaze.
The original recipe calls for an ingredient that’s mostly only available in Italy, so my mother adapted it for the rest of us and even added some yogurt, and the result is fabulous!
Many of you have asked…
What is Paneangeli or Pane Degli Angeli?
Paneangeli is the brand (translating to angel bread). Pane degli angeli means “angels’ bread” alluding to how light the product makes cakes and bakes. However, in plain English, the packets contain a vanilla-flavored baking powder.
I also use Paneangeli in this orange olive oil cake with ricotta.
To me, when I smell it, it makes me feel like I’m in Italy because it’s used in so many cakes and pastries. Sorry for the pun, but the aroma is heavenly! Getting ready for Christmas? Try these authentic Italian Christmas recipes which are great all year long!
Another Italian treat: maritozzi con panna (cream buns.)
Just know that the texture of this cake is different than a typical American cake: it’s more dense and heavy, but it’s meant to be that way. The whole orange cake also has a lovely glaze made with orange juice that soaks into the top of the cake, and works perfectly with blood oranges, too. I made a whole blood orange bundt cake to test them out (more than once)!
Tip: I once accidentally boiled the glaze into a syrup (forgot it was on the stove) and when I glazed the cake, it hardened and gave the cake a candy-like topping. I loved it! If you’d like to try this, just simmer the glaze an extra 6 or 7 minutes or so.
Everyone who’s tried it, loves it. Honestly, it’s just such a unique and crowd pleasing cake! Here’s a recent review (edited May 2023) which is only one of almost 2,800 reviews averaging 4.8 stars!
“Amazing, moist, delightful!
My whole family went back for THIRDS, didn’t last very long in our kitchen! Thanks for sharing” -Tianna
Gluten free diet? Try my gluten free recipe of this Sicilian Orange Cake!
It even gives perfect results when I make a gluten free whole orange cake. Of course, you can probably guess what I’m going to say next: you really need to use the best oranges you can get your hands on for this Sicilian whole orange cake recipe to turn out as deliciously as possible. If you can find organic, sweet, juicy oranges without a super thick rind, you’ll have it made. And if you ever have kumquats, try the same recipe to make these kumquat cupcakes.
Another of my most highly used recipes: authentic Italian tomato sauce (ready in minutes)
Just be sure to make this orange cake before citrus season is over! I’m sure there are other recipes for orange cake using fresh oranges, but I’d bet that this just may be the best orange cake in the world! It’s also perfect without the glaze as many have added in the comments and reviews.
Speaking of reviews, take a look at all the rave reviews and comments, many bakers declaring it is the best cake they’ve ever made!
Edited Dec. 2020: I’ve just made a cranberry twist to this recipe!
Edited February 2019: I’ve made this orange cake recipe in a loaf tin, and it’s perfect. I’ve also made it in a bundt tin and the amount of batter for one recipe makes a short bundt cake. If you want a larger cake, make 1.5x the recipe.
Speaking or oranges, did you know arancini means little oranges? Try my popular Sicilian rice ball recipe!
Can I Freeze this Sicilian Whole Orange Cake?
Yes, this orange cake freezes beautifully! I often have pieces in the freezer because it freezes so well!
Now adding my Sicilian Whole Lemon Cake, too! I’ve adapted this recipe for a Meyer lemon cake, too! It’s fantastic!
Do I Have to use a Food Processor to Make this Orange Cake?
I’ve been asked if a food processor or blender is necessary to make this cake and the answer is, “yes.” Unfortunately, it would be too difficult to chop the orange as finely as needed by hand. You can see how fine the orange is processed in a photo below, however, an inexpensive food processor works great.
Want to make this cake in cupcake form? Check out my orange cupcakes recipe.
EDITED 7/2022: Daniel Coffey (a reader) left a tip for those of you without food processors in the comments below. Since it might be difficult to find, I’m adding it here:
“I…cut the peel into coarse strips and then finely diced them. I put the chopped bits of orange into the spice grinder in two batches and pulsed the stick blender a few times. I tapped it on the counter top to shake down any remaining coarse bits and gave it about 30 seconds. Scrape out and repeat for the other orange half. You can then put the juice and finely chopped peels in the recipe as normal.”
Sicilian Whole Orange Cake
adapted by Lidia Conte from Pan d’Arancio from Allaciate il Grembuile
I highly recommend using a scale for this recipe and if you are deciding cups or weight, ALWAYS weigh!
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
Ingredients
- eggs
- sugar
- flour
- Pane Degli Angeli (baking powder)
- butter
- Greek yogurt
- orange
- (vanilla)
- GLAZE: orange juice and sugar
Directions
Make the whole orange cake batter
Prepare an 8″ springform pan by spraying with oil (or butter) and lining in parchment paper (sides optional, if you want really clean sides), then spray the paper, too.
Place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until light and creamy.
Sift the flour with the baking powder or Paneangeli, then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter. Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
In a food processor, or blender, process the whole orange until it is almost pureed. It should look like this~
Add the processed whole orange to the cake mixture (along with the vanilla if you used baking powder) and stir until evenly combined Put the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake the cake
Bake for 50-60 minutes (depending on your oven), but test with a cake tester or skewer to make sure the orange cake is done before removing from the oven. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then run a thin knife around the perimeter and remove the side of the springform pan.
Make the orange glaze
Prepare the glaze by melting the sugar in the orange juice and allow to simmer for a few minutes, just until the liquid has a syrupy consistency. Spoon and brush the hot glaze over the top of the warm cake and allow to cool completely before cutting. Yes, it’s hard to wait, but the moist orange cake will cut more easily if it’s cool first.
Enjoy the Sicilian whole orange cake!
Love citrus? Try making this lemon posset, but using oranges (or an orange/lemon combo) instead! It’s honestly one of my favorite desserts! It’s similar to orange boodle, but even easier, which is saying a lot.
Oh, and I just keep making this recipe using all sorts of fruits. In addition to the whole lemon cake I shared above, I’ve also made whole apple cake, pear cake, peach cake, blood orange cake, kumquat cake (and kumquat cupcakes) and tried lime, but the rind was too bitter. I will post here when I tweak the recipe to make it work.
Aaand I’m updating to add apricot cake, mandarin orange cake, and whole Meyer lemon cake, which is divine!
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Sicilian Whole Orange Cake
Special Equipment
- 1 packet Pane Degli Angeli vanilla baking powder (Italian)
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 ⅛ cups sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder OR 1 packet Italian Pane Degli Angeli vanilla baking powder
- ⅓ cup butter salted, softened
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt plain (yes, sour cream works, too)
- 1 orange approximately 1 large fresh, sweet, organic: washed and cut into pieces (keep the rind, but remove the seeds)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (ONLY USE IF USING PLAIN BAKING POWDER)
Glaze
- 2 ½ oz orange juice freshly squeezed juice of one large, organic orange
- 3 Tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
Make the whole orange cake
- Prepare an 8" springform pan by greasing and lining the bottom in parchment paper (sides optional, if you want really clean sides), then grease the paper, too.
- Place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Sift the flour with the baking powder or Paneangeli then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter. Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
- In a food processor, process the whole orange until it is almost pureed.
- Add this orange to the cake mixture (along with the vanilla if you used plain baking powder) and stir until evenly combined, then put the batter into the prepared tin.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes (depending on your oven), but test with a cake tester or skewer to make sure the orange cake is done before removing from the oven. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then remove the side of the springform pan.
Make the orange glaze
- Prepare the glaze by melting the sugar in the orange juice and allow to simmer for a few minutes, just until the liquid has a syrupy consistency.
- Spoon and brush over the top of the cake and allow to cool completely before cutting.
Notes
- I've received lots of emails and messages about the discrepancy in the measurements between metric and cups: THIS RECIPE WILL TURN OUT BEAUTIFULLY WHETHER YOU USE EITHER MEASUREMENT, which isn't normally the case (I normally recommend metric as it's more precise.)
- Measurements are NOT critical in this cake recipe. For some reason, it's extremely forgiving.
- I do not line the sides of the pan, but for perfect results, you may.
- Thousands of reviews can't be wrong.
- I've made this orange cake recipe in a loaf tin, and it's perfect.
- I've also made it in a bundt tin and the amount of batter for one recipe makes a short bundt cake. If you want a full size bundt cake, make 1.5x the recipe.
- Yes, it's hard to wait, but the moist orange cake will cut more easily if it's cool first.
- When I published this recipe almost a decade ago, it was the ONLY WHOLE ORANGE CAKE RECIPE in ENGLISH online. My mother found it on an Italian website (which I credit.) This is the original in English.
Nutrition
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Hi,
Do you know if plain soya yoghurt could be used instead of Greek?
Thanks x
I don’t know from experience, but what I can tell you is almost everyone who has substituted an ingredient has been pleased with the results. It’s a very versatile and resilient recipe! :) Let me know if you try it, Siobhan, but I would guess it will work fine. :)
Thanks so much. I’ll give it a whirl never the less :)
Awesome!
I don’t think eating the orange peel (outside of orange, ) is good for you. Can I use this by just putting inside pulp?
Thanks
Au contraire, Lorraine! As long as you are using an organic orange, there are many health benefits to eating the orange rind! Honestly, I wouldn’t bother making this cake if you don’t use the entire orange as that is the whole point. Also, I have no idea how this would turn out without it, so I simply can’t say. My recommendation is to get an organic orange, make the cake and pretend someone gave you this cake to try (you wouldn’t say no) and then let me know what you think! :)
Hello,
I rly want try out this cake and I just want to ask if I can use a glass container to bake the cake so instead of a spring foam pan
I haven’t used a glass pan, but I think someone did make a tray cake with it. All I can say is you can try, but can’t give a recommendation since I haven’t done it myself. Lmk if you do!
excellent recipe! will definitely make again.. i followed the exact recipe! Thankfully had everything so didnt need any substitute.. , my family loved it.. excellent tea cake for my tea drinking family!
My first try baking this cake. Let’s see who it comes out.
Best of luck, Mark :)
I don’t usually bake but being home for so long with shelter in place gave me a chance to try this Sicilian Orange Cake. Wow!! This cake is delicious…love the texture with little bits of orange throughout. I had to use a 10″ springform rather than 8″ and used whole wheat flour…. in both instances because that’s all I had. No problem…I’m a total fan of this cake! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
I did send a question before actually making the cake and did not get a response in time. I made this cake two days ago for a friend’s birthday. It came together quite easily and seemed to bake up fine. Due to social distancing, I only dropped it off the cake, I only asked for a picture once he cut into it. He loved the cake. Said it was not too sweet and will have no trouble finishing it off. He said the consistency reminded him of a pound cake though not as dry or dense. When I saw the picture I did note that it did not look as fluffy as yours and that it seemed dense towards the bottom. And no it was not raw.
I followed your cup measurements and not the grams, though for some recipes I do prefer following the gams. I was wondering which of the two you use. I am curious because the cups and grams don’t seem to equate for some of the ingredients, like the butter weight and the sugar. Not trying to be critical, just want to understand.
Unfortunately, I cannot respond directly to reviews and sometimes readers leave questions there which I don’t get a notification for, and more importantly, don’t have the ability to answer. I sent you an email on Thursday (5:20pm Pacific time). So glad your friend liked it. Maybe it should have baked a tad longer, but then again you weren’t able to taste it.
Here is the email:
Hi Regina,
If in doubt with any of my recipes, use the grams measurement. This cake still turns out using cups because it’s not a recipe that’s critical for measurements or even ingredients. If you look through the reviews, so many people have made substitutions and still rave about the end result. I made it gluten free and it’s amazing!
Anyway, thanks for checking, I wish I didn’t have to use cups at all.
Enjoy!
CC
http://www.christinascucina.com
I just made this cake to celebrate the end of the “virtual” semester. This is the most beautiful cake I have ever made. I added Cointreau to the glaze and it came out fantastic. Thank you
Very, very happy to hear it! Thank you so much and congratulations on the end of your semester (virtual or not, you still did the work!) Could you please leave a star rating, found on the printable recipe card or under WRITE A REVIEW? Thank you!
Very disappointed. Made this cake after reading so many positive reviews, however I was extremely disappointed with the result. Despite liking dense cakes, the batter was very heavy and dry after mixing in the flour, and was very heavy after baking. Despite tasting good, the baking process was very odd. Halfway through baking process I opened the oven door to rotate the cake and was overpowered with the amount of steam that cam out of the oven caused by liquid dripping out of the spring form cake tin. As the cake was only half way cooked I couldn’t clean up the mess on the oven floor. Consequently by the time the cake was cooked and the oven cooled slightly the liquid with sugar had was well and truly baked on to the oven floor and it took me all afternoon to clean it. Followed all the instructions which did say to uses a spring form tin. Don’t think I’ll be making this again.
So sorry this happened, Jan, but I can guarantee that you didn’t click the bottom of your springform pan into place correctly. If it’s not closed correctly, any cake you bake in it would have had that happen, THAT IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE RECIPE. The baking process was “odd” because of your mistake. I have done this myself, so I am not being condescending, it happens, but to blame my recipe is simply unfair.
Also, my directions do not state to turn the cake around or even open the oven halfway through baking. It’s things like this that cause recipe failures, and then I get the blame. Opening an oven when a cake is only halfway baked is always a bad idea.
This recipe is solid. Just look at the number of reviews and comments with almost a 5 star average. Again, I’m sorry you’re disappointed, but it is user error, and not the recipe. Hope you try it again and double check your springform pan (first thing is to make sure it’s the right side up and in the groove.) Good luck.