I know I have shared many times that my family of foodies has a weekly family dinner we call it World Wide Wednesday even though family dinner is on Tuesdays now. My father-in-law calls it traveling Tuesdays; my family is so clever LOL.
For 2026 we are eating our way through the United States. Last week we were in New Hampshire. How fitting since we actually LIVE in NH. The problem we were having is to actually make something FROM NH. This really wasn’t an easy task. Come to find out there isn’t a whole heck of a lot that we are known for that we haven’t borrowed from our neighboring states. The six New England states are really known for a lot of the same things.
We decided that Boiled Dinner pretty much being the only thing NH can stake a claim on. Luckily we all love that meal and it was delicious. Desserts I could only find one that had a history of coming from NH was an orange cake, when I looked around there was a Portsmouth Famous Orange Cake. It comes from Ralph Green’s 1894 cookbook. He called it famous in his cookbook so it must be right?!?!? Anyway here is the recipe I made and it was a hit so give it a try.
Moist Orange Cake
Equipment
- 2 8 inch round cake pans
Ingredients
Orange Cake
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 2¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoon orange zest
- 3 large Eggs room temperature
- 5½ tablespoons milk room temperature
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
orange cream cheese frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 4½ cups powdered sugar
- 1½ cups cream cheese cold
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1½ tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350℉ Grease or line two 8 inch cake tins
- Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- using a stand mixer or hand mixer in a large bowl add the butter, vegetable oil, sugar and orange zest. Beat until they all come together around 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each one. Add in the milk, orange juice and vanilla. Mix well to combined.
- Being careful to not over mix, add the dry ingredients to your wet, only till combined. Pour even amounts into each cake tin. Bang the tins lightly on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once baked allow the cake to cool on the pans for 15 to 20 minutes, before turning them out onto wire racks to cool completely.
orange cream cheese frosting
- In a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream your butter for 1-3 minutes until it's light and fluffy. On slow add the powdered sugar in batches to make sure all the sugar is mixed in before adding the next batch.
- Add in the cold cream cheese, vanilla, orange zest and orange juice. Mix until the frosting is smooth.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, frost the first layer well, top it with the second layer and frost the top and sides. Stored any leftovers in the fridge. Best to let it come to room temperature before eating the leftovers.