Orange Drizzle Cake
, Updated Jan 27, 2026
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This Orange Drizzle Cake is zesty, moist and delicious! An easy all-in-one orange sponge drizzled with orange syrup that will delight citrus lovers.
I am obsessed with all citrus. I have a mini orchard of various potted citrus trees from oranges to cumquats and everything in between.
This probably stems from growing up in Greece where it is perfectly common to see orange and lemon trees bursting with fruit thriving everywhere. And I do mean everywhere, they are frequently planted as decorative trees along the road.
And as much as I am obsessed with all citrus trees, I am doubly obsessed with citrus cakes! This orange drizzle cake recipe is here to join the many, many lemon drizzle variations I have on this site.
Orange Drizzle Cake
An extremely easy cake that has plenty of WOW factor and uses everyday ingredients? Sign me up!
This orange cake uses the usual suspects: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, orange zest and juice, milk, eggs and butter.
The orange drizzle is simply fresh orange juice mixed with granulated sugar – what could be easier!
You can mix the cake batter with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer. You will also need digital kitchen scales, a round 9 inch cake tin and a microplane for zesting the oranges.
HOW TO MAKE ORANGE DRIZZLE CAKE
Full measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. Please take a look at the steps and video before attempting this recipe!
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Mist a 23cm (9inch) cake tin with cake release spray and line the bottom with baking paper.
Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and orange zest into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine using a small whisk.
Add the orange juice, milk, butter and eggs. Beat using an electric hand mixer until the batter is smooth. You might need to stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is mixed well.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake feels springy to the touch and a skewer inserter in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Prepare the orange syrup by mixing orange juice and sugar. Use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake, still in the cake tin.
Drizzle the syrup over the cake letting it soak in. Any sugar that hasn’t fully dissolved will add a lovely crust on top of the cake. Allow the cake to cool before gently inverting onto a platter. Decorate with small orange slices or leave plain. Slice and serve and expect everyone to ask for seconds!
How to serve and store orange drizzle cake
This orange drizzle cake tastes sensational just as it is! My husband likes to heat it for just a few seconds in the microwave before devouring it…
The cake keeps very well for a few days in a covered cake container, in fact the orange flavour intensifies the day after it is baked. Do not store in the fridge as it will go stale.
You can also freeze the cake, whole or in slices for up to three months. Wrap well and thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
RECIPE TIPS & FAQS
Orange drizzle cake is a variation of the British classic lemon drizzle cake. You could use different types of citrus fruit to make this cake – when blood oranges are in season then you MUST bake a blood orange drizzle cake! Other variations use clementines, grapefruit, limes and so on.
Use a Microplane zester to zest your oranges. Give the oranges a good rinse and dry them before zesting. You will be using the juice of the zested oranges in the cake and the drizzle so nothing goes to waste.
Adding a little lemon juice to the orange syrup cuts down on the sweetness. If you are serving grown ups then you can dial up the orange flavour by adding a splash of orange liqueur such as Cointreau or Triple Sec to the drizzle.
Since this is an all-in-one recipe your ingredients should be room temperature ideally so that they blend well together. This is especially important when it comes to butter. If you are using margarine such as Stork however then you can use it straight out of the fridge.
You will also like…
Lemon Drizzle Traybake
Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream
Easy Lemon Curd Cake
HAVE YOU MADE MY ORANGE DRIZZLE CAKE RECIPE? Please leave a rating, post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #supergoldenbakes and make my day!
Orange Drizzle Cake
Video
Ingredients
For the cake
- 350 g (2 ¾ cups) flour plain / all purpose
- 330 g (1 ⅔ cups) caster sugar or granulated
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tbsp bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- 3 oranges zest only
- 200 g (7/8 cup) unsalted butter softened or Stork baking spread
- 3 large eggs
- 120 ml (½ cup) whole milk
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) orange juice use the zested oranges
For the drizzle
- 2 oranges, juice only
- 150 g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp orange liqueur optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Mist a 23cm (9inch) cake tin with cake release spray and line the bottom with baking paper.
- Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and orange zest into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine using a small whisk.
- Add the orange juice, milk, butter and eggs. Beat using an electric hand mixer until the batter is smooth. You might need to stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is mixed well.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake feels springy to the touch and a skewer inserter in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Prepare the orange syrup by mixing orange juice and sugar. Use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake, still in the cake tin.
- Drizzle the syrup over the cake letting it sink in. Allow the cake to cool before gently inverting onto a platter. Decorate with small orange slices or leave plain. Slice and serve and expect everyone to ask for seconds!
Notes
- Start with room temperature ingredients. Unless specified otherwise all your ingredients including butter eggs and milk should be at room temperature in order to achieve a smooth batter. If one or more of the ingredients are cold they will cause your batter to split or look curdled.
- You CAN use Stork straight from the fridge.
- If your milk is cold from the fridge then heat briefly in the microwave or saucepan until just tepid. Make sure the milk is body temperature – not too hot!
- Place cold eggs into warm water for five minutes to bring them back to room temperature.
- Never substitute with light / reduced fat products unless the recipe explicitly says you can!
- To prevent your cakes sticking to the pans, properly grease the cake tin with a little softened butter and then sprinkle with flour shaking out any excess. I prefer to use a cake release spray for most of my baking.
- For this orange cake you can use a 23cm (9in) springform cake tin, a loose bottomed tin or a regular cake tin. If you use the latter make sure to be very careful when turning out the cake as the top will be moist from the syrup.
- Run a knife around the edge of the tin and invert the cake carefully onto a plate. Peel off the baking paper which was lining the tin. Immediately turn it over the right way around onto a stand or cake plate.
- How do I know if my cake is done? Oven temperatures can vary so set a timer for 5 minutes before the specified time. The cake is done when the top is springy to the touch, the cake has just started to pull away from the edge of the tin and a skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Avoid opening the oven too often – or too early! – to check if the cake is done or your oven will start losing heat.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate, and will depend on quality of ingredients and serving sizes.
There is something wrong with the recipe. I used weighted measurements and digital scale. I put the batter in a 9 inch cake pan. The batter overflowed all over my oven. I put a cookie sheet under the cake pan and scraped a bunch of batter out. I finished baking the cake and it is surprisingly not horrible. Maybe the problem was the 1 tablespoon or baking powder or 1/2 tablespoon baking soda that made the batter rise up too much? I don’t know. Was the batter supposed to be in a deeper spring form pan?
There should not have been a problem unless the pan was too small (or perhaps not sealed properly and it leaked)