This recipe stands the test of time as one of the most delicious marble cakes with that wonderful combination that is orange and chocolate. It keeps well and freezes wonderfully, so you can make it ahead. I made a few tweaks to the original recipe and it's now even better than it was, with more flavor and a decadent chocolate ganache glaze!
Fantastic flavors
Orange and chocolate are a fabulous pair, and if made into a cake, let's just say it's even better. It is one of my favorite cakes for a special occasion and also works as a snack cake if you eat it plain or dusted with powdered sugar.
Though my idea of these flavors is usually a chocolate cake with orange flavor, be it zest or candied fruit or an orange glaze, here it's a hint of cocoa with the right amount of orange tartness.
The marbling is beautiful and makes for a stunning presentation, similar to the chocolate cheesecake swirl cake.
As I mentioned before, I improved on the original recipe, mostly by increasing the orange flavor and adding a layer of unctuous chocolate glaze on top to amp up the chocolate flavor. Let me confirm that it worked very well.
This is a solid chocolate orange bundt cake with wonderful flavors that took me a long time to get to. It's my go-to recipe when it comes to citrus and chocolate. The crumb is moist and slightly dense but lighter than, say, our perfect chocolate cake with sour cream.
I wasn't consciously looking for it, or so I thought, but now I know that it was in the back of my mind, that recipe that will be good anytime I want to make a citrus bundt cake, with or without the marble effect, or a regular marble cake flavored with vanilla instead of citrus.
And, if you leave out the cocoa powder, you have a fantastic orange bundt cake recipe or orange cake recipe if you bake it in a round or sheet cake pan. Just saying.
Ingredient list
- Orange: the main ingredient we use is orange zest. And an interesting amount, about two whole oranges. You can also use blood oranges.
- Orange liqueur or juice: I use Grand Marnier or Cointreau, but opt for juice if you don't want to use alcohol (it evaporates during baking).
- Cocoa powder: always use unsweetened.
- Unsalted butter.
- Sugar: the regular, white granulated sugar.
- Vanilla extract.
- Flour: you can use all purpose flour or cake flour.
- Baking soda: it's the only leavening agent used so make sure it's not expired. If it's clumpy make sure you sift it before adding it to the cake batter.
- Salt: I use kosher salt for my baking, but table salt also works.
- Eggs: fresh, large.
- Milk: I always use whole milk for a richer cake, but low fat also works.
Quantities are listed in the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
Preparing the bundt pan
If you bake bundt cakes often, you’ve likely had one stick to the pan. It’s frustrating—but preventable. Here are three reliable methods:
- Shortening and flour: Coat the pan thoroughly with soft shortening using your fingers or a brush, making sure to reach every corner, including the center tube. Dust with flour, rotating the pan to cover evenly, then tap out the excess over the sink.
- Cake goop (pan-release paste): Mix equal parts shortening, flour, and oil into a paste. Brush it onto the pan. Store leftovers in a jar—1 month at room temp or up to 3 months in the fridge. This is one of my favorite methods.
- Baking spray with flour: Only use baking spray that includes flour. Regular cooking spray isn’t enough and often leads to sticking. I rarely use this anymore.
The recipe matters too: When I find a bundt cake that releases cleanly, even without perfect prep, I hold onto it—it’s a keeper.
Prepare the cake batter
It's a pretty straightforward butter cake and it's a large cake, so use an electric mixer and a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
- Creaming tips: the soft butter needs to be beaten for several minutes with the sugar to aerate it (incorporate air) and achieve a light and spongy consistency. So add the sugar gradually while beating and use a large bowl where you can mix all the ingredients comfortably, without them spilling.
- Eggs: they're added one at a time so they can be better incorporated. Mix each one well before adding the next one.
- Flavorings: in this case it's orange zest (orange peels) and vanilla (I used paste). They're added to the butter/egg mixture (before the dry ingredients) because they blend better with ingredients that have fat content.
- Flour mixture: it's comprised of flour, salt, and baking soda. All of the dry ingredients are sifted before adding them to the batter as it will help further to have a light crumb after the cake is baked. Also, don't overbeat after adding flour as it might result in a tougher cake.
- Wet ingredients: in this case it's milk and it's added in parts, alternating with the dry ones, so that it melds well with the rest.
- Final batter: the cake mix is smooth and not very dense.
How to marble a cake
You need two different batter colors in order to get a marbling effect.
- Chocolate batter: a portion of the vanilla orange mix is transferred to a small or medium bowl and cocoa powder is added to create the chocolate part of this cake. Make sure you sift the cocoa as it's usually clumpy. You want a smooth preparation.
- Marbling: both batters are divided in half (eyeball them) and added to the prepared bundt pan. Make sure the chocolate batter is added in mounds and then lightly swirled with the tip of a knife. It's important to distinguish both colors, so don't marble them so much that they almost become one.
Chocolate glaze
We'll be using a luscious ganache glaze that will drip down the sides not covering the cake completely. You can use different types of chocolate depending on how sweet you want it to be.
- Dark chocolate ganache: my favorite, the one I use for our perfect chocolate bundt cake. It's semisweet with just the right amount of sweetness that comes from the addition of some brown sugar and a touch of corn syrup.
- Sweet chocolate ganache: use half milk chocolate instead of all semisweet. It will just be as smooth and wonderful but that bittersweet edge will not be there. It's the one we use for my favorite cake ever, the hot chocolate bourbon cake.
Kitchen Notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, utensils and equipment needed, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
- Baking time: consider that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as possible, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend tracking how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Sift the cocoa powder and baking soda: this is important because they can clump during storage and will not dissolve during baking.
- Alternate dry and wet ingredients: this is an important step when making cakes because we always want to level temperatures and densities. By adding part of the flour mixture, then part of the milk, and repeating it until we add it all, we make sure it's all well incorporated. Important: always start and end with the dry ingredients.
- Flavoring: I use orange zest quite a lot as I believe it's the most natural and best way of achieving a good orange flavor. But you can use pure orange extract if fresh oranges are not available. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it works if you don't have fresh fruit available.
- Chocolate chips: if you want to have some crunch or more chocolate flavor, you can add mini semisweet chocolate chips (¼ cup or so) to the chocolate batter, together with the cocoa powder.
Related recipes you might like:
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Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons shortening, softened, to grease the pan
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, to dust the pan
For the cake:
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons orange zest, 2-3 oranges
- 3 tablespoon orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier, or orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose , or cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup milk
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
For the chocolate glaze:
- 1 cup heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- ¼ cup brown sugar, dark
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup, or runny honey
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350º F (180ºC).
- Grease a 10 or 12-cup bundt cake pan (26cm) with 2 tablespoons shortening, covering every angle, nook and cranny. Dust with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, shaking off excess. Reserve.
- Beat softened 1 ½ cups unsalted butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, slowly adding 3 cups sugar and beating for 2 to 3 minutes after all is added.
- Add 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add 2 tablespoons orange zest, 3 tablespoon orange liqueur or orange juice, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
- Sift 3 cups all-purpose , 1 teaspoon baking soda and ¼ teaspoon salt together in a small bowl or have them measured and sift directly over the butter mixture, as I do.
- Add the dry ingredients (also called the flour mixture) in three additions alternating with ¾ cup milk in two additions. Don't overbeat after adding flour, simply beat just until incorporated.
- Transfer 1 cup of this mixture to a small bowl and mix into it the sifted ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder. Gently mix until you have a smooth batter.
- Add half the orange batter into the prepared pan, spreading evenly. Drop half of the cocoa mixture over it, and swirl a few times with the tip of a knife. Repeat with the remaining batters. You will have to layers of marbled cake mix.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. It might take several more minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 20 minutes.
- Remove from the bundt pan, it will still be quite still hot, so be careful. Place on the cooling rack and let cool completely before glazing.
- Pour the chocolate glaze on top of the cake and let it drip down the sides. You can scoop the drippings and pour them over again. Do this quickly before it sets. You can decorate with orange slices, orange peel, or rind.m
For the ganache glaze:
- Finely chop 8 ounces semisweet chocolate and put it in a bowl, preferably glass.
- In a small saucepan heat 1 cup heavy cream with ¼ cup brown sugar. Remove just when it's about to boil. It should have small bubbles in the outer rim.
- Immediately cover the chopped chocolate with the hot cream. Let stand 1 minute to soften.
- With a wire whisk start mixing from the middle out. The chocolate will mix with the cream and create a smooth and shiny chocolate mixture.
- Add 1 tablespoon corn syrup, mix well and it's ready to use.
Lynn Cote says
Very easy to make and the taste is delicious. I prepared the pan using shortening and flour but the cake got stuck in the pan.
ALVARO says
fue un desastre, se me quedó pegado en el molde de bundt. Yo uso nordic ware 🙁
ALVARO says
y una ultima pregunta jajajaja. Esta torta es para un molde de qué medida?
ALVARO says
Hola Paula. vuelvo a molestarte, lo siento. Me pregunto que equivalencia en gramos puede ser 3/4 cup milk. Es que en español no se usa la medida Cup. gracias.
ALVARO says
me encanta tu blog. Lo peor que el traductor de google me traduce al español fatal jajajajaja, pero no te preocupes que ya veo que hablas mi idioma y si tengo alguna duda te pregunto. Esta receta me la llevo. ¿está rica? un saludo desde España.
Cocoa and Lavender says
Paula - your baking prowess never fails to amaze and impress me! Everything you make looks and, I am sure, tastes flawless. I have a fear of bundts... That they won't release from the pan. Did you ever have this fear? ~ David
Cocoa and Lavender says
Thanks for the vegetable spray and breadcrumbs advice! I will definitely try that. And I will trust your well-tested recipes. This is one I will make soon, as we are overwhelmed with fresh oranges right now.
I had planned on making the pandoro today but slept late, so it will happen tomorrow. I am a little nervous about it unmolding, too! The mold came compressed and I am not sure how much to pull it out before filling. We shall see. Maybe the bundt will win out over the pandoro tomorrow.
Jennie @themessybakerblog says
Chocolate and orange is a winning combo. This bundt looks amazing!
Ann@Anncoo Journal says
Love the swirl inside the cake. So pretty!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked says
Paula, there ain't nothing ordinary or boring about this cake. If I came over to your house and this stunning beauty was lying around, I'd sneak it out under my jacket so that I could eat it all myself. I adore the combination of chocolate and orange. This cake looks so dense, moist and flavourful. The chocolate swirl is so pretty - I don't think I could get a cake to marble this well. Onto my 2013 bucket list this goes!
Patty says
I love this cake too Paula! I am a huge fan of marble cakes and your flavors are just spot on! Great post with beautiful photos;-)
Laura says
The cake is gorgeous! I am not a fan of fruit and chocolate, but that cake is enough to convince me otherwise!