A few days ago I was talking to my mom on the phone and she told me that she had a recipe of an orange cake that she used to make a lot and she wanted to share this recipe with me. She also suggested that I could post this recipe on my blog because whenever she made this orange cake, people really liked this cake. It is a typical Swedish cake recipe with a just a few ingredients, easy to make and it is wonderful light and moist cake which is perfect for a weekday afternoon tea or for a Sunday breakfast.
I always get very excited when my mom gives me one of her handwritten recipes and these recipes are truly very special to me. I have my favorite baking books which I love and these books will accompany through my entire life but nothing can top of the handwritten recipe of my mom. I treasure these the most. They might seem to be just a little piece of paper with a handwriting on it but there is so much more behind it. 
After I made the orange cake last night, I talked to my mom again since I wanted to know more about the background of this recipe. The little piece of paper that you can see above was written by my mom when she was in her early twenties. My mom was in a library in Borås, which is a little city in Southern Sweden, and she found this orange cake recipe in a magazine which she wrote down on the back of a receipt. I am sure that at that time my mom never thought that decades later she still have this recipe that she scribbled down receipt in a hurry. I am sure my mom never imagined that this piece of paper would be on the Internet one day and I am sure that my mom ever imagined that her daughter will share this piece of paper on a so called blog which did not exist decades ago.
Once upon a time a little piece of paper was written in a library in a little city in Sweden, moved around with my mom, ended up in a kitchen in Munich, Germany, was scanned and Emailed to me and now I am writing this from a tiny little room in Vienna, Austria, and sharing this recipe with readers around the world. What a fairy tale. 
Makes one Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS

  • 150 g unsalted butter, soft
  • 200 g granulated sugar
  •  Zest of two organic lemons, finely grated
  • 50 ml orange juice, freshly squeezed
  • 180 g pastry flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 150 g powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons candied orange peel, optional

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
  • Grease and flour a cake bundt pan.
  • Whisk butter and sugar until light and creamy.
  • Add one egg at a time and mix until everything is well combined.
  • Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
  • Add the flour together with the orange juice and lemon zest. Mix until everything is well incooperated but do not overmix.
  • Pour the cake batter into the cake pan.
  • Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes. If you put a toothpick into the cake and the toothpick comes out clear the cake is done.
  • Let the cake cool completely. Remove from the bundt pan.
  • For the icing: Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add orange juice and vegetable oil and mix until the glaze is smooth. I like the glaze on the runnier side. If you prefer a thick icing, add a little bit more of powdered sugar.
  • Pour the icing over the cake and sprinkle with candied orange peel.