Whole Wheat Orange Bundt Cake

     

After juicing the last oranges of the season from our tree this weekend, I got it in my head I wanted to use some of the juice to bake an orange bundt cake. Searching for such a recipe led me to a beautiful vegan blog, Leaves of Wheatgrass, and a wonderful sounding whole wheat orange bundt cake.

The only ingredient I didn't have on hand was orange extract, but I figured I'd use Grand Marnier. The discovery of an empty decanter led me to plan B and I went with orange zest instead. Later, once the cake was baked, I found that the original recipe that the one I followed was adapted from actually called for zest of two oranges. I'm not sure how much that yields, but I had substituted 1 tablespoon of zest for the 1 teaspoon extract and found it to have the perfect amount of orange flavor. 

I loved this cake and have had a hard time keeping myself out of it. It's very moist, lightly sweet and has that wonderful texture that whole wheat pastry flour lends. I glazed it with a very small amount of glaze that I made by mixing about 2 teaspoons of orange juice with a quarter cup confectioners sugar and an 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract, although truthfully, I'm not certain it even needed it. I think I'll try leaving it plain next time.

And there will definitely be a next time.

Whole Wheat Orange Bundt Cake
 barely adpated from Leaves of Wheatgrass, originally from VegKitchen

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (I used a canola/olive oil blend)
2 cups orange juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest

Preheat oven to 350. Oil and flour a 12 cup bundt pan very thoroughly. Set aside.

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients. Pour wet mixture into dry. Whisk just to combine, taking care not to over mix. 

Pour mixture into prepared bundt pan and tap it on the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles. Bake on the middle oven rack for 45 minutes, or until cake is light golden brown and tester comes out mostly clean. 

Cool completely in pan before flipping out on a wire rack. Glaze as desired.