Orange Pound Cake

One of the first chick flicks/romantic comedies I ever watched was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I think it's kind of what started me and my mom having shared interests (and also our friendship despite the fact that I was a teenager and what teenage girl wants to be friends with her mom?). One of the scenes that has always made us laugh is the beginning of the family dinner when Ian's parents meet Toula's family and Ian's mom brings a bundt cake, which Toula's mom has a hard time understanding (both the concept and the name).

So when my mom asked me to make for her birthday an orange cake that I had pinned on Pinterest but couldn't remember which one, I decided to make one that used a bundt pan. It was perfect because we were celebrating at Anthony's girlfriend Kati's parents' house (we ended up basically copying the movie because Anthony and Kati announced their engagement at the part =D). OK, I mainly made the cake so I could reference the movie and the scene in this post. But when Mom saw the cake we both laughed about the scene, so mission accomplished? (Except we forgot to put a flower pot in the cake's "hole." Oh well.)

Orange Pound Cake (source)

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• zest of 2 oranges (I used orange extract. Got the exact amount here)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (once again - vanilla-flavored almond milk and lemon juice)
• 1/2 cup orange juice (I used store-bought Tropicana)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour pan; set aside. (I used Pam with Flour to coat the pan)
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar and zest. Beat on high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes longer.
5. Combine buttermilk and orange juice. Reduce mixer to low, add dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with buttermilk mixture and ending with dry ingredients.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan (10-cup bundt pan). **DO NOT fill the pan to the very top. Leave at least a half-inch for the cake to rise. You may have leftover batter.**
7. Bake 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting on baking rack.

OK, so as usual I basically just added the ingredients one at a time. I don't think it mattered much. Also, I ended up not having extra batter. I think my bundt pan is bigger than 10 cups.

I don't think I've ever gotten as many compliments for something I've made as I got that night. Granted, there was more people since some of Kati's family were there, but it still felt like more compliments than usual. I wasn't used to it. Most importantly, Mom loved it. She even told me that she snuck a couple bites for breakfast a couple mornings later.