I love a good tea cake because it’s just the right amount of ‘dessert’ to brighten up an afternoon energy slump — with a cup of tea of course! Tender and light, with sweet jammy notes and a slight bitterness from the orange rind, this orange marmalade tea cake is sure to be a favourite. This cake can go from breakfast, to afternoon snack, to a light dessert that’s great to bring along on long travel days or to a friend’s house because it carries so well.
If you like citrus flavours, you’ll love this recipe — the orange flavour is so amazing and soft and fragrant, making the kitchen smell heavenly while the cake bakes. The recipe is fairly simple: it’s made with pantry staples, and takes less than 15 minutes of active cooking time! You simply prepare the wet and dry ingredients separately, and fold it together at the end before baking.
Tips to get the best orange marmalade tea cake:
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you start — the butter should be soft, the eggs at room temperature, and the marmalade should be out on the counter and not crystallised.
- Use good quality marmalade. The name of the recipe should be indication enough, but this cake is only as good as your marmalade, and the right kind of marmalade is equal parts sweet and bitter. I love the No. 3 Clive Road Farm Fresh Orange Marmalade — it’s sourced from a small women-led collective based in Uttarakhand, and made in small batches from the freshest oranges direct from the orchard. It’s sweet and jammy, with bits of the orange rind giving it much needed bitterness. It also tastes like a fresh burst of citrus that gives the cake a full-on orange flavour, without artificial flavourings that’s common in jams and preserves.
- Don’t skip the glaze! It feels like an extra step, but it reaaaallly dials up the orange flavour in the cake. I use orange juice and icing sugar to make the glaze, and mix it really well to get it smooth and without any lumps of sugar. Then I add a tablespoon of the marmalade to get maximum orange flavour, and to also taste the sticky bits of rind! When poured on top of the loaf with and extra drizzled on to the sides, it gives every bite the perfect amount of sweetness.
- Make sure the cake has cooled down a fair bit (at least 2 hours) before pouring the glaze on top. It should be at room temperature, just warm enough that it absorbs some of the glaze, but not so warm or hot that the glaze melts right off and gets runny and messy. Let the glaze set on the cake for a bit before slicing too.
And that’s all!
This cake can just be left on the counter in an airtight container for 2-3 days, and it stays perfectly moist and tender. If keeping for longer, make sure you refrigerate it, and it should stay good for up to a week.
Warm it up slightly before serving with a pot of tea for the ultimate British high tea!
Orange Marmalade Tea Cake
Ingredients
- 125g butter, softened
- 100g castor sugar
- 2 eggs
- 200g flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 3 tablespoons No. 3 Clive Road Farm Fresh Orange Marmalade
- 1 cup icing sugar
- A couple of tablespoons of orange juice
- 1 tablespoon No. 3 Clive Road Farm Fresh Orange Marmalade
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a standard 9” loaf tin with butter and dust with flour, or alternatively grease it with oil and line it with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar with an electric whisk until soft and fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, whisking until fluffy and light (don’t over whisk).
- In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. Add half of it to the egg mix with 1 tablespoon of the milk and fold to combine. Then add the remaining dry ingredients and another tablespoon of the milk and fold until the batter comes together.
- Lastly, add the marmalade and gently mix. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin and smooth out the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-48 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool down for 10 minutes before running a knife along the edges to loosen, and invert it on to a wire rack to cool down completely.
- Make the glaze: in a bowl, mix the icing sugar, orange juice and mix until all the lumps are dissolved. Add the marmalade – the glaze should be a glossy, smooth, pourable consistency. Pour on top of a completely cooled cake, decorating with orange slices if you like.
