Sultana and Orange Drizzle Cake

This Sultana and Orange Drizzle cake is easy to make and perfect for any occasion. Soak the fruit in fresh orange juice while you make the cake batter.

Adding a flavoured icing drizzle to any cake, will turn something that looks plain, into something a bit special. Icing sugar mixed with lemon or orange juice will do just that.

The drizzle icing is perfect for a Lemon Drizzle cake. Or an Orange Drizzle Cake.

This is an adapted version of Sultana Cake which is perfect for smaller servings as it uses a smaller sized cake tin.

How to prepare the fruit

Should you always soak the fruit first? I personally would. The dried fruit takes on all the orange flavour and plump up at the same time. Leaving very little residual liquid to unbalance the consistency of the cake batter. If there is any juice left, don't waste it. Add it to the cake batter. A small amount won't make much difference to its consistency.

Place the Sultanas in a small dish. Add the Zest and Orange Juice. Give everything a good stir and leave to one side, for at least 15 mins. Give the fruit and juice the occasional stir to enable the fruit to soak up as much of the orange juice as it can, while you get on with making the cake batter.

How to make this  Sultana and Orange Drizzle Cake

Preheat the oven to 170 deg Fan assisted. Grease and line the base of a (9") 23 cm loose bottomed cake tin. Using a circular baking parchment cake liner on the bottom of the cake tins, makes it much easier removing the cake from the tin base. Especially if you need to transfer it to a plate.

Using an electric mixer is much easier.

Beat together the butter and sugar until lighter in colour and a little fluffy. This will take a few minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour in between to help prevent curdling. Add the remaining flour, ground almonds, mixed spice and vanilla extract.  Mix until well combined.

Add the Sultanas and any residual orange juice, to the cake batter. Mix until well combined. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin, levelling off the top. Sprinkle the Demerara Sugar evenly on the top of the batter. This will give you a nice crispy sugar coating after it's baked. Which is great if you don't want to bother with the drizzle.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 – 35 mins or until baked. Testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean. If needed, bake for an extra 5 mins and test again.

When baked, leave in the tin for 10 mins to cool a little before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Orange Drizzle

Gradually add the orange juice to the icing sugar until you have a thick runny consistency. When the cake has cooled completely, drizzle the icing over the cake in a zig zag fashion. To make it easier, pour the icing into a piping bag with a fine opening. Disposable piping bags are great for this.

Will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days.

Why this recipe works.

The flavours in this cake work really well because the Sultanas are steeped in the orange juice and zest. Adding the small amount of remaining orange juice goes someway to enhance those flavours in the cake batter.

Using fresh orange juice rather than an extract plays into the subtle orange flavours. Nothing goes to waste as the remaining orange half is used to make the Orange Drizzle.

If you don't have enough juice to make the drizzle, let's say because you used a smaller orange. Use cooled, pre boiled water instead.

Other drizzle or fruit cakes that you may like to try;

• Lemon Drizzle Traybake with Lemon zest and fresh lemon juice
• Yorkshire Tea Loaf

You could also try a smaller version of this recipe, Sultana Cake without the drizzle. Or this Tosca Cake which is a rich, moist almond flavoured sponge with a crunchy flaked almond and caramel topping.

Keen To  Bake More?

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If you make this recipe, please leave a comment with a rating, to let me know how you got on.