Helen Goh’s Orange Milk Cake

Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine. 

Anita Bryant

A few weeks ago, Helen Goh featured a recipe for Orange Milk Cake in Good Weekend magazine. Helen said that this cake delighted her so much that she ate nearly half of it and kept the other half for later rather than giving it away as it freezes well.  She said that “my ration of a slice a day brought unreasonable joy.” With an endorsement like that, how could I not make this cake!

And I am glad I did - what a beauty of a cake.  I again got the opportunity to use my Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt tin, which enhanced the beauty of this flavourful cake. Orange zest features in the batter, and orange juice features in the glaze.  The cake has a sunny orange glow to the crumb from the saffron in the batter; if you don’t have saffron, Helen says that you can substitute it for turmeric, which is a cheaper option to get the same effect.

If you are inspired by Helen’s words to make this lovely cake, you will need:

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads (or 1 teaspoon turmeric)

275ml milk

240g plain flour plus extra to dust the cake tin

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

70g almond meal

160g butter plus extra to grease the cake tin

230g sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest

3eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing

25ml saffron infused milk (see below)

25ml orange juice

150g sifted icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and flour a 6 cup capacity Bundt tin and chill it in the fridge while you make the cake batter.

Lightly toast the saffron in a small dry frypan over low heat for one minute. Remove the saffron from the heat and crush it with a spoon.  Put the milk and saffron into a saucepan and heat it until it becomes hot but not boiling. Remove the milk from the heat, and allow the saffron to infuse until the milk comes to room temperature. Divide the milk into 25ml and 250 ml batches.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set aside.

Put the sugar and orange zest into the bowl of a stand mixer and rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant. Add the butter, and beat the sugar and butter together until creamy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla, then on low speed, mix in the flour mixture and 250ml saffron milk alternately in three batches, starting and finishing with the flour.

Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the top, and bake for 50-60 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cake is cool, make the icing by mixing together the 25ml saffron infused milk, orange juice and icing sugar to form a thin glaze. Apply the icing to the cake by dabbing it on with a pastry brush and allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake.

Slice and serve!