This moist and flavorful orange buttermilk bundt cake is suitable for breakfast and even better as an afternoon pick-me-up with an iced coffee.
The slightly sweet, slightly bitter orange zest pairs wonderfully with the sour, tangy buttermilk. And when you eat this with a cold brew coffee, it is truly heavenly and magical!
Reasons to Try This Recipe
- This orange buttermilk bundt cake is an easy, straightforward recipe that uses staple kitchen ingredients. You likely have all the ingredients needed!
- Easily adjust and customize this recipe to your liking. Orange zest can be swapped out for lemon zest, lime zest, grapefruit zest, or a combination of different citrus zests.
- Citrus is a great flavor that can be enjoyed year round.
Buttermilk Cake Ingredients
This simple straightforward bundt cake recipe uses kitchen staple ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, and eggs.
The flavor comes from orange zest and buttermilk.
- Orange Zest : Wash and scrub your oranges well to remove any commercial wax. Use a microplane zest or similar grater to extract the flavorful rind of the orange. Any orange variety will do. Or, use your choice of citrus. Lemon, lime, or a combination of lemon-lime-orange are delicious options!
- Buttermilk : Low-fat or reduced-fat buttermilk are most commonly available. Buttermilk has a slightly sweet, tangy flavor. It adds moisture and depth of flavor to baked goods. Make “homemade buttermilk” buy combining one cup cow’s milk with one tablespoon acid (such as vinegar or lemon juice).
How to Prep Bundt Cake Pan for Baking
Use these recommended bundt pan practices to ensure perfectly unmolded bundt cakes. It is important to butter and flour the pan. Yes, even if you use a non-stick bundt pan!
You may use non-stick baking spray for ease. However, I suggest and prefer the classic method listed below:
- Begin with room temperature, softened butter. Ideally, the butter should have the consistency of mayonnaise.
- Use your fingers (or gloved fingers) or a pastry brush to coat the bundt pan with a generous layer of butter. Make sure to get into all the cracks and crevices of the pan!
- Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of flour into the greased pan. Evenly distribute the flour by shaking and tilting the pan. Tap and swirl pan to move flour all over the greased areas.
- Invert pan. Tap and discard any excess flour. The prepared buttered and floured pan should look like the image above.
This is my favorite bundt cake pan to use. I love its clean shape, but most of all, I love how easy it is to unmold the cake from the pan.
Options for Other Baking Pans
This orange buttermilk cake is baked in a 10-cup capacity bundt pan. It’s the same pan used for banana bundt cake, orange blossom bundt cake, and eggnog bundt cake.
However, there are several options if you don’t have a similar sized pan! This recipe can make:
- Angel food cake tube pan like the one used in this banana crumb cake.
- Two 9×5-inch loaf cakes. Adjust baking time to about 45-50 minutes to bake two loaf pans.
- Two 9-inch square pans. Adjust baking time, about 40 minutes.
More Orange Cake Recipes
Orange Buttermilk Bundt Cake
Equipment
- 10-cup bundt cake pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, (390 g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar, (300 g)
- 5 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (227 g) softened, room temperature
- 4 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk, room temp
Orange Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon whole milk, or heavy cream, (add more depending on desired consistency)
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- pinch of fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter and flour bundt cake pan. Tap out any excess flour. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine sugar and orange zest. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a handheld mixer), cream butter and sugar mixture until smooth. Scrape down bowl as needed.
- Add eggs one at a time, ensuring each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add dry flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Begin and end with the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until thoroughly combined. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- Pour batter into prepared bundt cake pan. Level batter. Bake for 60-70 minutes until cake springs back to touch and toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert bundt cake onto a wire rack. Remove cake from mold and allow to cool to room temperature.
- To make orange glaze: whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, orange zest, and salt. Whisk until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add another tablespoon of milk. Drizzle over cooled bundt cake.
Notes
- I used this 10-cup capacity bundt cake pan
- The sweetened dried orange slices used to garnish is from Trader Joe’s
- I used this microplane zester/grater
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Great recipe but next time I would decrease the amount of baking soda to maybe 1/2 T instead of 1 T. I could taste the baking soda and I never like that. I also only made the icing with orange juice and powdered sugar.
Hello.. can I use full fat buttermilk ? Thanks !
Yes, you can use full-fat buttermilk