I looooooove marmalade.  Hated it as a kid.  Love it as a grown up.  My mom put a very expensive jar of marmalade in my stocking at Christmas (aren’t Moms great?!).  I used some of that to make my first marmalade cake. It was a disaster, collapsing all over the plate when removed from the pan, but the crumbs were so delectable that I decided to give it another go and fix the recipe.  My second try at this cake was good, very orangey. Then I thought perhaps I had made the wrong guess about the recipe the first time, and decided to try it again. It was not better than my second try, and the second recipe used less process food and therefore had less chemicals in the cake. The second cake, my variation, was the winner and the one I am posting.

I found the original recipe on Folgers.com, it was called Orange Cake.  I tried it because I had that very expensive marmalade, but the recipe was a problem from the beginning.  It didn’t seem like there was enough butter to “cream” the butter and sugar until “light and fluffy”. I followed the recipe anyway.  The second problem was the recipe called for a box of instant vanilla pudding, which I didn’t notice at first and didn’t specify what size box of instant pudding.  So in the middle of mixing the first cake, I went to the store for a box of instant vanilla pudding.  My store only carried the large size box, so I though, OK, instant pudding only comes in the large box, so I bought and used that. You know the end.  Disaster.  But a tasty disaster.  So I decided to adjust the recipe and find a real food substitute for the pudding.  A search of the Internet told me that was probably not a good idea because the recipe probably relied on the chemical thickening agents and such.  Arrrghhhhh!  I ended up adjusting the recipe anyway, adding some cornstarch and a more reasonable amount of butter.  Success!  I was going to post that recipe…until I found a small box of instant pudding at another grocery store.  Arghhhhhhhh!!  So I made the cake the third time, with my adjustments to the butter and the small box of pudding…no better than my second version. So here is the second version, no box of instant pudding required.

A few notes…the quality of the marmalade does affect the taste.  By the third cake I was out of the expensive stuff and used a cheapie store brand.  When you make this cake–and please make this cake, it’s yummy–use the best quality marmalade you can get your hands on,

You’ll thank me for this one–but I guess you should thank Folgers, too, who inspired this Marmalade Cake journey and this post.

Marmalade Cake

For Cake

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange extract
1/3 cup orange juice concentrate, at room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup Sweet Orange Marmalade

For Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 T. orange juice concentrate, at room temperature
2 T. Sweet Orange Marmalade
3 tsp. orange zest (usually from one orange)
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Prepare a 12-cup Bundt pan. Mix dry ingredients together and set aside (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt).  Using an electric mixer, beat butter for one minute and then add in sugar and beat for 3 or 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  After all eggs have been added, beat mixture for an additional minute, then beat in orange and vanilla extracts and the orange juice concentrate.  Beat in 1/3 of flour mixture, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, then 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, and then the last 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Do not over beat.  Fold in marmalade.  Pour batter into a prepared bundt pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 – 50 minutes or until cake is done.  Meanwhile, mix up glaze.  Beat all ingredients together until well combined.  When cake is done, remove from oven and cool in pan on a rack for 3-5 minutes.  Remove cake to a rack and brush on 1/3 of glaze mixture, letting it soak into cake.  After 10 minutes, brush on another 1/3 of glaze.  After 10 more minutes brush on remaining glaze.  Let cake cool completely on rack before serving.  Serve at room temperature.  I have had no problems keeping this cake under a glass dome on the kitchen counter for 3 -4 days.

MMmm… I think this is now one of my top five favorite cakes.  What’s your favorite cake?