By the time I got to my camera, my family had already had their way with this cake, which was a hit with our 9- and 13-year-old nephews as well as the adults over Labor Day weekend. I heated up some jarred hot fudge sauce because most of us are chocolate fiends, but everyone wanted the orange sauce too, either on the accompanying vanilla ice cream or over the whole mess.
The hardest thing about this recipe, which I found in its original form at http://www.allrecipes.com/, is finding the Duncan Hines Orange Supreme Cake mix I like to substitute for the yellow. When we moved to Columbus, I discovered that Meijer and Wal-Mart usually carry it. The first time I made it, I used Jell-O orange pudding mix, which I can no longer find anywhere. You can use vanilla, but I like the extra zip from the lemon. If you can’t find orange extract in your area, you can use the lemon the original recipe called for, or order it online from Target, Wal-mart or amazon.com. I nearly always use slightly diluted frozen orange juice concentrate when recipes call for orange juice, as this one did. Another way to kick it up a notch.
This moist cake is also wonderful without the chocolate chips.
Orange Cake
1 (18.25-oz) pkg. orange (or lemon) cake mix
1 (3-oz.) pkg. instant lemon pudding mix
3/4 cup orange juice made with 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate mixed with 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 tsp. orange extract (or lemon)
1 12-oz. package semisweet mini chocolate chips (optional, but why?)
Topping:
1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate mixed with 1/3 cup water
1 1/3 cups white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
Grease or spray a 10-inch Bundt pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl, stir together cake and pudding mixes. Make a well in the center and pour in 3/4 cup orange juice mixture, oil, eggs and orange extract. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes, but start checking at 40 minutes to make sure you don’t overbake the cake.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, cook 2/3 cup orange juice, sugar and butter for two minutes.
When the cake is done, place pan on a rack, poke holes in the cake with a fork, cake tester or toothpick, and pour half of glaze over cake. Let cool in pan. Loosen cake around edges with knife, then turn out onto a plate and flip onto serving plate. Serve with a little sauce over top. And maybe hot fudge sauce.
Leave a Reply