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This was one of my favorite cakes when I was a child. We lived with orange trees all around us. My father planted one tree they called a "June bloom", which meant that we almost always had our own fresh homegrown oranges for anything we wanted. The cake has several simple steps, but is very easy and quickly put together. If my mother added the brandy when making the syrup, I never knew it. It has become one of my own family's favorites, as well as one that I'm often asked to make for birthdays and other family celebrations.
Mix sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan until sugar is all melted. Do not boil. Set aside to cool slightly, then add brandy (or Southern Comfort). You are going to baste the baked HOT cake with this syrup, as soon as it comes out of the oven and the rim of the pan is removed.
Cake:
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at the time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and stir in until batter is smooth. Sift flour and salt together. Add baking soda to sour cream and stir.
Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately mixing after each addition. End with flour. Fold in orange zest, pecans, and raisins until thoroughly blended.
Bake in greased and floured tube pan about 45 minutes at 375 degrees F. Test for doneness.
Remove cake from oven, carefully remove outer rim from tube pan, and place cake still on the pan's bottom on a cake plate, then immediately baste hot cake with reserved orange syrup. Baste slowly so as to get all the syrup into cake.
When cake is cool, it will be easily removed from the bottom of the pan to the plate. Run a knife around the tube part of the pan, then slide the knife between the cake and the bottom of the cake pan and carefully move it onto the plate.
| Servings: | 10-12 |
| Time: | 30 Minutes Preparation Time 45 + Minutes Cooking Time |
Source: My Mother's recipe. I believe it came from my maternal grandmother, since I ate the same cake at her home when I was a kid.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
Cook raisins and water down to 1 cup juice. Add soda and shortening to liquid while warm. Add sugar and flour (enough to make light batter - will not be stiff), baking powder, salt, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix well and bake at 350 degrees F until done.
By Robin from Washington, IA
Set oven to 500 degrees F. When ready to put cake in oven, reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and sugar; add egg yolks. Sift flour and baking powder; add alternately with milk. Add vanilla. Chop raisins and nuts; shake them in some flour, then add to batter. Beat egg whites and fold into batter. Grease and flour tube pan and pour batter in. Bake 1 hour or till cake tester comes out clean.
By Robin from Washington, IA
