« Roast Chicken with Grapes | Recipe Home | Eggplant and Red Pepper Terrine »

Print Options

Orange Cornmeal Cake Recipe

Filed under Bakery, Dessert

Orange Cornmeal Cake

When we first came across this recipe in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine we had to try it out. We've made it several times now, and everytime with great results. It's sort of a cross between a coffee cake and cornbread with a light orange flavor. Unexpectedly good. Light, moist, and not too sweet. Be careful not to overcook.

Print Options

Orange Cornmeal Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for the pan
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for the topping
1/2 cup orange juice (or dry white wine)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leavened)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Orange segments for serving

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with oil; line bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and brush paper with oil.

2 In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and orange juice until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and orange zest; whisk gently to combine.

3 Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top evenly with remaining 1/3 cup sugar (topping will be thick). Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.

4 Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Re-invert cake onto a rack to cool completely. Serve with orange segments, if desired.

Serves 8.

Never Miss A Recipe!

Enter your email address to subscribe to Simply Recipes: (more details)

Posted by Elise on Oct 24, 2004 and indexed Cake, Cornmeal, Orange

  • Print (no photos)
  • Print (with photos)
  • Share on Facebook

Comments

Hi
I love your blog with good recipes and instructions. This one indeed looks yummy and easy to make! I've got to give this a try. Thanks for posting.

Posted by: obachan on October 28, 2004 5:59 PM

So simple..but the taste is not..I highly recommend you use more Orange zest. I cooked it to 35 minutes and it still seem a little over cooked. I recommend eating this with some marmalade...ugh.

Posted by: SilentRose on December 28, 2004 6:58 PM

Hi SilentRose,

Because the cake is made with cornmeal it can have a somewhat grittier texture than we are used to in a cake, but more used to in a cornbread. If it is overcooked, it will be dry. You might try testing it at 25 minutes, then 30.

Posted by: elise [TypeKey Profile Page] on December 30, 2004 12:39 PM

Hello. I just made this cake and it was pretty good. however i could not get it to taste very orangey. I didnt have OJ so i squeezed oranges. and i used the zest of two oranges. the oranges were probably too ripe though. Do you think that is what affected the taste? Texture of the cake was really good, moist but crumbly and gritty from the cornmeal. thanks =)

Posted by: sylvia on May 7, 2006 3:18 PM

I was out of butter and was looking for something to make with cornmeal. Just made this and it was very easy to make! It is in the oven baking, smells delicious. Thanks for posting the recipe.

Posted by: Laurie on December 19, 2006 5:06 PM

It´s a good recipe! And very easy! I´ve made it with spanish oranges, of course........
Kisses from Spain

Posted by: carol on April 21, 2007 10:26 AM

This was really good. I halved it, and since our oven isn't working, I did it in the microwave. The olive oil flavour was a tiny bit strong for my tastes though, so next time, I'll use canola oil. I totally didn't see the topping part, but I smothered rasberry preserves on top after baking, which I think made it absolutely divine. Next time(and hopefully with a conventional oven,)I may put the preserves on the cake while baking. I wonder if that will work. Hmmm. Anyway, wonderful recipe!!!

Posted by: Sabrina on May 31, 2007 7:26 PM

I used the zest of one lime and one lemon with the wine and it came out super tasty. Super fast and super tasty.

Posted by: David on June 27, 2007 8:12 PM

I liked the olive oil, orange flavor (used zest of two tangelos off my tree), but I thought this cake too sweet. I used 1 cup sugar in recipe and reduced topping to 1 T sugar and still found it cloying, especially since the recipe was described as "not too sweet". Next time I would reduce sugar to 2/3 cup or less and hope that the texture stays as soft and nice as it is without the reduction.

Posted by: Jackie on June 28, 2007 5:40 PM

Post a comment

(Your comment may need to be approved before it will appear on the site. Thanks for waiting. First time commenting? Please review the Comment Policy.)

Link to this recipe

Bookmark this page using the following link: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000802orange_cornmeal_cake.php

Do you have a website? You can place a link to this page by copying and pasting the code below.

<a href="http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000802orange_cornmeal_cake.php">Orange Cornmeal Cake</a>