Bundt Cake #14 of Bundt Cake Season 3: Orange Yogurt Pound Cake with Orange Glaze

This is a recipe that caught my eye last Bundt Cake Season, but I was stymied by the fact that it called for mandarin orange yogurt, which A) I'm not sure is even made anymore, and B) definitely isn't one of the flavors available from the local purveyor of yogurt I like to buy. It wasn't until the end of BCS2, that I came up with a solution, so this cake had to wait until Bundt Cake Season 3.

The solution I came up with was to simply buy a can of mandarin oranges, chop them up, and add them to the batter, to have the equivalent of mandarin orange yogurt. It worked well enough, though there were very few mandarin orange pieces in the cake (I chopped 'em pretty small), so if I were to make this cake again, I'd definitely use two cans of mandarin oranges. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that what they meant by mandarin orange yogurt wasn't simply orange-flavored yogurt, much like lemon yogurt.

This was a very nice orange-flavored poundcake, and I do love an orange glaze. What put this cake over the top, however, was when I took my friend Resa's advice. Last year, when I was posting about the bundt cakes of BCS2 on Facebook, at some point, Resa posted the following suggestion, "You toast that shit. And you butter it." (These may not have been her exact words, but it's damn close.) When toasted, this cake was transformed into something really delicious. When I gave slices to my friends, I was very clear that to properly enjoy it, they needed to toast it. The toasting tip was especially helpful when the cake was starting to edge toward staleness. I did not actually butter any toasted slices of this poundcake, but I bet it would be tasty.

The recipe is from the Bundt Cookbook:

6 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

2 tablespoons orange juice

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mandarin orange yogurt (or 1 cup plain yogurt and one to two 11-ounce cans of mandarin oranges drained and chopped)

Directions:

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and 1/2 cup of sugar until very stiff.

In a separate bowl (Or, like me, you can beat the egg whites in your stand mixture, then transfer them to another bowl, and then mix up butter, etc., in the stand mixer bowl), cream butter with remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks one at a time.

Blend in orange peel and juice.

Add the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt, to the butter mixture. Mix until smooth and creamy.

Thoroughly fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Bake in a greased and floured (or sprayed with baking spray) 10- or 12-cup bundt pan for 50-55 minutes, or until cake tests done.

Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes; turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar or orange glaze (I definitely recommend the orange glaze).

Orange Glaze

(I usually make just half a batch, but I also seem to like my glaze on the thinner side, so a half batch goes further. Making it thinner means that I also use more orange juice than 1/2 a recipe calls for. Here's the full batch recipe.)

2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon soft butter

2-4 tablespoons orange juice

1-2 teaspoons grate orange peel

Directions

In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add orange juice gradually to achieve desired consistency and stir until smooth. Add peel and stir until fully incorporated.

I'm not sure how much you can tell from this picture, but this cake rose pretty high out of the pan. I think it's because I made sure the butter was properly softened and I used the trick I learned from Kiss My Bundt to make sure that the eggs were at room temperature. (Supposedly, eggs are easier to separate when cold, but I didn't really have any problems with these room-temperature eggs.)