Sweet, soft, moist, and tasty Orange Cake made with fresh orange juice. This Cake Recipe is easy to follow, a bit healthy and includes whole wheat flour. A lovely eggless orange cake that is suitable for both vegetarians and vegans alike!
Table of Contents
Why This Orange Cake Recipe Works
This eggless orange cake recipe is a delicious guilt free sweet treat made with fresh ingredients. I use fresh orange juice in this recipe but you can use canned or packaged orange juice.
You can swap a few ingredients in this recipe if you do not have them to hand. I used whole wheat flour to make this orange cake however, you can use all-purpose flour instead. I also used raw sugar as a sweetener but you can swap it with powdered jaggery.
The great thing about this cake is that it is very light as not much oil is needed in this recipe. You won’t get that heavy feeling after eating a slice of this orange cake. This is definitely a relatively healthy orange cake recipe compared to others.
If you want more sweetness then feel free to frost this cake with orange whipped cream or buttercream icing. However, I prefer to eat it plain with a hot cup of tea or coffee.
This recipe makes a medium-sized quantity for 3 to 4 people. You can also try this delicious egg-free Orange Muffins recipe.
This eggless orange cake can be baked both in a regular oven and in the microwave oven with the convection mode.
How to Make Orange Cake
Make Batter
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sieve 1 cup whole wheat flour with 1 tablespoon cornstarch (or custard powder), a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon baking soda. Keep this sifted dry mixture aside.
Note that cornstarch is known as cornflour in India.
2. Add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup sunflower oil to a bowl. You can include softened butter instead of oil. Use a neutral flavored oil. You can also use olive oil.
Kindly note that in the video, there is a typo for the amount of oil. The quantity of oil that you actually need to add in this recipe is ¼ cup only.
3. Beat this mixture with an electric beater, hand beater, or wooden spoon for a few minutes.
I have made this cake with jaggery too. So you can add powdered or grated jaggery instead of sugar.
4. I made fresh orange juice but you can use packaged orange juice too, preferably without added preservatives. If you are making fresh juice, use an electric juicer.
You can also blend the orange segments (seeds removed) and strain the juice as shown. I used three medium oranges to get a bit more than 1 cup of juice.
You can check this post for the step-by-step method of making Orange Juice in a blender.
5. The below photo is of fresh strained orange juice.
6. Measure and add 1 cup of the orange juice to the sugar and oil mixture. If you are using whole wheat flour, then 1 cup of orange juice works well and if you are using all purpose flour then you can add about ¾ cup of orange juice.
Do not keep the orange juice resting as it turns bitter. So use it straightaway to make the cake batter.
7. Stir very well thoroughly with a wired whisk until all of the sugar dissolves.
8. Now add the sieved flour mixture and ½ to 1 teaspoon orange zest. For a stronger orange flavor add a bit of orange extract or essence.
Note: To get the zest of orange, grate the orange peel before peeling the oranges. Use a handheld grater or zester to grate the orange peel. Do not grate the white pith.
9. Mix everything very well with a wired whisk. There should be no lumps in the cake batter.
10. The orange cake batter is ready.
Bake Orange Cake
11. Pour the batter in a lined or greased cake tin of about 7×4 inches. Use a spatula to scrape the batter from the sides of the bowl and pour it into the cake pan.
12. Tap the pan from the sides or tap the bottom of the pan on the countertop to remove excess air bubbles. The batter will easily level in the pan by itself when you tap the pan.
13. Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes.
Check the cake with a toothpick or bamboo skewer and it should come out clean. If there is any batter sticking on the skewer, then bake for some more minutes.
TIP: If the top of the cake starts browning too much, cover the top with aluminum foil or parchment paper while baking.
SUGGESTION: If you do not have an oven, then bake the cake in a stove-top pressure cooker. Follow the method as detailed in this recipe post of Pressure Cooker Cake to make this eggless orange cake.
14. Place the baked cake on a wired tray to cool at room temperature. Later gently remove the orange cake from the pan.
Serving and Storing Suggestions
Slice the eggless orange cake and serve as a sweet dessert snack or with tea or coffee.
If you want to save some cake for later then wrap the remaining cake in cling film or store in a covered container, and refrigerate for about a week. You can also freeze this cake for about a month.
Expert Tips for Orange Cake
- Flour: Make sure you sieve the flour before making your cake batter. This gets rid of any bran in the flour, and splits up lumps of flour. I used whole wheat flour to make this orange cake recipe as it is a healthy alternative however, you can use all-purpose flour if you do not have any whole wheat flour to hand.
- Oil: I added oil to this orange cake batter which makes it a vegan option. For a vegetarian option use butter instead. Both ingredients work well in this cake.
- Orange juice: If you are making orange juice from scratch then use medium-sized, juicy ripe oranges. Make sure you remove the seeds before juicing them. Sieve the juice to ensure that the orange fibers do not get added to the cake batter. Alternatively, you can use canned orange juice without preservatives or additives, if you are short of time.
- Leavening ingredients: It is important to add baking soda and powder to this recipe as they help the cake to rise. Make sure that both leavening ingredients have not expired because this will stop the orange cake from rising.
FAQs
Adding too many liquids to cake batter can result in an overly moist cake. Make sure you add ¼ cup of oil to this recipe to achieve the perfect amount of moisture.
Yes, you can. In this recipe, I have only added fresh orange juice but you can add orange extract or essence to enhance the orange flavor. Add a bit of orange extract along with the sieved flour mixture and ½ to 1 teaspoon of orange zest.
Yes, it is very easy to freeze orange cake. Allow the cake to cool completely and wrap it tightly in cling film then foil. Label the cake and freeze it for up to 1 month.
There are a few reasons why your cake may not have risen. Perhaps the batter was mixed too much or maybe it wasn’t mixed enough. Also, using expired baking powder or soda will prevent the cake from rising.
I add corn starch to this recipe to give this cake a delicious soft texture.
More Delicious Cake Recipes!
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Orange Cake (Eggless, Vegan & with Whole Wheat flour)
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour – 120 grams or can use all-purpose flour or half-half of both the flours
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- ¾ to 1 cup Orange Juice – If using whole wheat flour then add 1 cup orange juice and if using all-purpose flour, then add ¾ cup orange juice
- ½ cup raw sugar – 100 grams, can use powdered jaggery or powdered sugar – add more if required
- ¼ cup sunflower oil or olive oil or butter or any neutral oil
- ½ to 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (cornflour) or eggless custard powder
Instructions
Making batter
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sieve whole wheat flour with the corn starch (or custard powder), a pinch of salt, baking powder and baking soda. Keep this sieved mixture aside.
- In a bowl add the sugar and oil. You can also use softened butter instead of oil.
- With an electric beater or hand beater or a wooden spoon, beat this mixture of oil/butter and sugar for a few minutes until well blended. Set aside. I have made this cake with jaggery too. So you can add powdered or grated jaggery instead of sugar.
- Now make the fresh orange juice. You can extract the juice with a handheld juicer or in an electric juice or blender. For the blender method, blend the orange segments (with seeds removed) and strain the juice to filter out the fibers. I have used three medium oranges to get a bit more than 1 cup juice.
- You can use packaged juice too.
- Measure and add 1 cup of the orange juice to the sugar and oil mixture. If using whole wheat flour, then 1 cup of orange juice works well and if using all purpose flour, then you can add about ¾ cup of orange juice.
- Mix very well until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Now add the sifted flour mixture and orange zest. To get a more dominant flavor of oranges, add a bit of orange extract or essence.
- Mix everything very well with a wired whisk. There should be no lumps in the cake batter.
Baking orange cake
- Pour the batter in a lined or greased cake tin of about 7×4 inches. Use a spatula to scrape the batter from sides and add it to the cake pan.
- Tap the pan from the sides or tap the bottom of the pan on the countertop, so that excess air bubbles are released and the batter becomes even in the pan.
- Bake the cake in a preheated oven for 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Check the cake by inserting a bamboo skewer and it should come out clean. If it has any batter on it, bake the cake for some more minutes.
- Place the cake on a wired tray or rack to cool it completely at room temperature.
- Later gently remove it from the pan. Slice the eggless orange cake and serve as a sweet dessert or with tea or coffee. You can wrap the remaining cake or store in an tight container and keep in the fridge for about a week.
Video
Notes
- If using fresh orange juice, then make the juice just before you add it to the oil-sugar mixture. Keeping orange juice for a long time can result in it getting bitter and spoiling the taste of the cake.
- The recipe can be scaled easily. If scaling, then keep in mind that the time of baking will increase if you bake the entire cake batter in one pan. If you decide to bake in 2 to 3 pans, the timing will remain almost the same.
- Omit cornstarch (cornflour) or custard powder if you do not have it.
- Make sure that your baking soda and baking powder are fresh, active and within their shelf period.
- You can use all purpose flour in this recipe. Add ¾ cup orange juice if making the cake with all purpose flour.
- Note that the approximate nutrition info is for one slice of the orange cake.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Orange cake recipe post from the blog archives (first published on February 2013) has been republished and updated on 5 June 2021.
Nice recepe
Hi…..this is absolutely awesome. I wanna try this on Christmas eve….:) would you suggest a substitute for corn flour or vanilla custard powder, I don’t have them handy.
thanks akila. there is no close substitute but you can either skip it or add 1 tbsp besan/gram flour.
Hi..I plan to try this Asap! In the meanwhile can you Pl tell me the difference between baking powder and baking soda….Thanks
welcome deepa. baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate – when moistened releases carbon dioxide which helps in rising of baked stuff.
baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, an acidifying agent (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). same function as baking soda. however baking soda is more strong.
Hey Dassana, just now baked the cake and it came out very well…wow the aroma while baking was heavenly. However one thing I noticed was that the cake has turned brown and crunchy on the top layer…..what could be the reason????
browning can depend on the oven temperature or even with the ingredients in the baking. what i do is, when i see that the top layer is getting too browned, i cover with butter paper or aluminium foil and continue to bake. this way the browning does not become too much.
I have to tell you dassana that your recipe is absolutely awesome. I made it yesterday and it came out extremely soft, so unlike the usual atta cakes. The only thing I found lacking was the intense orange flavor in the original recipe so I added two tsp of zest instead of one, and increased the quantity of orange juice to 1 cup. Later glazed it with the orange juice, and confectioner’s sugar combo, it tasted super duper yummy. I love your blog and thank you for coming up with such easy and tasty vegan recipes.
thanks a lot madhulika. the orange flavor is not dominant. 2 tsp zest is good. but if you add orange extract or essence, then the there is a dominant flavor of orange. this time recently when i made this cake, i also added 1 cup orange juice 🙂
I want to give this a try but I don’t have oven so can I bake this in pressure cooker instead? Please advice what to do.
Thank you
try baking. i have not tried baking this cake in the pressure cooker. but i think you can easily make in the cooker. just sprinkle salt or sand on the cooker. heat the cooker first for 5 minutes. place the pan with the cake batter in the cooker. do not cover the pan with any lid. close the cooker lid tightly on the cooker, like the way we do when cooking rice or dal. remove the vent weight/whistle from the lid. you can also remove the whistle from the lid before covering the cooker. reduce the flame to its lowest and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. you might even take more time.
had a few amount of left over oranges; searched up a recepie – found yours & I have to so it’s amazing delicious <3
thank you for this quick, easy & delicious recepie
welcome sharan. glad to know this.
Hello Dassana,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. Today I made this cake and it has turned out very nice, soft and delcious.
Lookimg forward to try some more recipes from your blog.
God bless you…
welcome guneet. glad to know that you liked orange cake recipe. yes do try some more recipes.
Hi,
i want to try this recipe
but having one query
is there any substitu for orange zest
its easy to get orange zest. just grate orange peel and you get orange zest. just make sure you grate only the orange colored part of the peel and not the white part. white part has bitter tones.
Tried this cake yesterday turned out awesome thanks for the recipe
welcome deepti
Hi, I would like to give this a try but unfortunately I don’t have baking powder right now. I have baking soda and also eno fruit salt. Will these two help in making this cake? Or can I just use baking soda? Can you please give me some ideas on this?
Thanks in advance..
just skip the baking powder. just add the baking soda mentioned in the recipe. thats it. no need to add eno.
Thanks a lot for your response!! I bought baking powder and tried it.. And the cake is just out of the oven.. It is smelling and looking awesome and it was done in just 25 mins.. Waiting for it to cool as I want to ice it and give hubby as it is his birthday!!
Thank you once again!!
welcome durga. the cake smells wonderful when baking. thanks for sharing your feedback.
Does this freeze well? I have A LOT of OJ
i have not tried freezing. but i think, it should.
awesome website
Hi Dassana! I have been following most of your recipes and they are just awesome!
Im totally new to baking and i decided to start with this simple recipe for orange cake…i used sugar instead of jaggery and didnt use baking soda! instead i used 1 tsp of baking powder.
Cake turned out pretty good except for less fluffy and slight wierd odour! is this anything to do with wheat flour or absence of baking soda?
its due to the absence of baking soda and the quality of flour.
Hi Dassana….Im goin to try this recipe this week….I need a clarification….If using powdered jaggery, do i have to melt the jaggery in water before adding it to the flour ? Or, powder it completely and mix it into flour ? Since no water is mentioned in recipe except for orange juice, im worried abt the batter consistency…
if you use powdered jaggery, then add it directly to the flour. the acidity of the orange juice helps in dissolving the jaggery.