Barefoot Contessa's Orange Pound Cake

Friday was National Pound Cake Day, so I celebrated by, you guessed it, making a pound cake.  Since I was also making candied orange peel for a recipe that I want to try next week and had oranges in various stages of denuding all over the kitchen, I figured an orange pound cake was certainly in order.  So, while making dinner (pork chops with sausage gravy - DELISH! - and roasted asparagus), and boiling orange peels into submission, I made this cake.  It's Ina's recipe so, as expected, it was wonderful.  I cut the recipe in half so it made just one loaf and this worked fine.  For dessert this evening I served a variation by topping pieces with sliced strawberries and orange custard cream (that I halved as well).  Wonderful! 


Barefoot Contessa's Orange Pound Cake

1/2 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup grated orange zest (6 oranges)
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, divided
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. Cream butter and 2 cups of sugar in a bowl. Mix in eggs, one at a time; add zest. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In another bowl mix 1/4 cup orange juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Add flour and buttermilk mixture alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with flour. Divide between 2 pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Make syrup while cake is baking. Syrup consists of remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup orange juice. Cook these two together over low heat till the sugar is dissolved. Spoon over cakes and then allow them to cool completely before inverting onto wire rack.

Orange Custard Cream

1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon grated orange zest 
5 extra-large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Triple Sec
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream


Combine the milk and orange zest in a medium stainless steel saucepan over medium heat and bring to a low simmer. Remove from the heat.

For more great Ina recipes, I recommend these books -

This is linked to:

& Ina's Garden