Orange Juice Cake

5 from 1 vote

This old-fashioned Orange Juice Cake is incredibly moist and bursting with fresh citrus flavor! Plus, the easy dessert comes together in minutes with help from a box of cake mix and vanilla pudding.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword orange juice cake

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 40

Cooling Time 2

Total Time 2 55

Servings slices

Calories 390kcal

Author Blair Lonergan

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

1 (15.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup orange juice
½ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon orange zest (from about 2 large oranges)

FOR THE GLAZE:

2 cups powdered sugar
¾ cup orange juice
4 tablespoons salted butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to beat together the cake mix, dry pudding mix, orange juice, oil, eggs and orange zest for about 2 minutes.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes in pan. While the cake is in the pan, prepare the glaze.
To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar, orange juice and butter in a saucepan. Boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, for about 2 minutes.
Invert the cake onto a wire cooling rack set over a foil-lined baking sheet. Use a toothpick or fork to poke holes all over the top of the cake. Slowly drizzle the warm glaze all over the hot cake, pausing to allow the glaze to soak into the cake before adding more. The warm cake will absorb a lot of the glaze, while some more glaze will also drip down the side.
Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Notes

Grease the Bundt pan really well by coating with butter and then dusting with flour. Alternatively, you can use a cooking spray that's specifically made for baking (like this one). These options will ensure that your cake pops right out of the pan when it's done!
When zesting the oranges, be sure that you’re only scraping off the outer layer of the peel (this is where the essential oils and delicious flavor can be found). Be careful not to grate any of the white pith from the fruit, because that is bitter and definitely not what you want in your cake.
Orange Juice Cake with Jello: use a 4-serving box of orange jello mix instead of the vanilla pudding mix. If you use orange jello, you can omit the orange zest in the cake since you'll have plenty of orange flavor from the jello.
Use a box of white cake mix instead of yellow cake mix.
For extra citrus flavor, use lemon pudding instead of vanilla pudding.
Orange Drizzle Cake Recipe: once the cake has completely cooled, drizzle a simple frosting over top. To make an orange juice frosting, whisk together 2 cups of powdered sugar, ¼ cup of orange juice, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract until smooth. Thin with small amounts of orange juice, if necessary. Drizzle over the cooled cake and let the glaze harden for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Orange Juice Cake with Pecans: add 1 cup of chopped pecans to the batter.

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