The Best Orange Cake Recipe | Simple. Tasty. Good. (2024)

FAQs

How do you make an orange cake less bitter? ›

Solution: boil the oranges. This removes the bitterness as well as softening the oranges to make them “jammy”, which makes the cake damp and sticky inside.

Enhance With Extracts

Pure vanilla extract and pure almond extract are great options, but you could also try lemon extract or orange extract paired with fresh citrus zest. Although more expensive, vanilla bean paste or fresh vanilla beans will provide even richer flavor to a boxed mix.

Any liquid can be substituted for the milk in a recipe with a 1:1 ratio. Choose the best liquid for your recipe: Is your recipe sweet or savory? You may choose between a fruit juice, water or broth, depending on if your recipe's flavors.

Baking tip #6: Adding a touch of vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon to be exact, is all it takes to make your box cake taste better, even homemade. Using authentic vanilla permeates your cake, leaving the essence of vanilla in every bite.

You may have grated into the pith (the white part of orange skin) instead of just zesting the orange part. This tastes very bitter and can affect the flavour quite a bit. You may have over reduced (boiled) the sticky orange syrup which resulted in it burning a little. Burnt orange tastes very bitter.

One way to fix a bitter cake is to add a small amount of an acidic component, which is highly recommended especially when you toss in too much baking soda. If your cake recipe contains chocolate, you can add a ½ teaspoon of cocoa powder. Here are some other ingredients you can try: Lemon juice.

Step 1: Look at the directions on the cake mix. Step 2: Add one more egg (or add 2 if you want it to be very rich). Step 3: Use melted butter instead of oil and double the amount. Step 4: Instead of water, use whole milk.

Adding something rich and creamy is perfect for adding moisture and rich flavor: Adding some sour cream, yogurt or even mayonnaise will add a more dense, rich flavor (as a side note, there was a very popular cake made in the 70's and the secret ingredient was mayonnaise!).

Don't Over-Mix

That trapped air expands then deflates in the oven. A deflated cake is a dense cake! Only mix the wet and dry ingredients together JUST until combined. I usually run a whisk or spatula through the batter a couple times at the very end to ensure there are no large lumps at the bottom of the bowl.

Is cake better with milk or water? ›

“Cake Mix can usually be used with either water or milk. When using milk, however, you can probably expect better results because it can make the cake become more moist and rich in flavor.

Most box cake recipes will tell you to add water to the mix. Instead, try adding milk using the same proportions. This will make the cake richer and creamier because it ups the fat content. You can even use buttermilk here for a pleasant tang.

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Since it's nearly impossible to remove the pith completely, the best way to get the bitter out is blanching the zest three times, by dropping it into boiling water to release the bitterness, then shocking it with ice water to stop the cooking (and repeat, and repeat).

The secret to getting rid of the bitterness. is to boil your citrus for 2 minutes. and then toss it in an ice bath to stop the cooking.

Boiling oranges may help to remove some of the bitterness from the fruit, but it will not completely eliminate it. Bitterness in oranges is primarily concentrated in the white pith, which is the layer between the skin and the flesh of the orange. The bitterness comes from compounds called limonoids.