Orange Marmalade Carrot Cake #BundtBakers

This orange marmalade carrot cake is a riff on my more traditional carrot cake recipe. The marmalade adds enormous flavor and creates a more-ish sticky glaze as well.

  

Many years ago my mom went through a juicing phase and her refrigerator drawer was always filled with big bags of carrots. She may correct me here but I recall that her favorite was to juice a bunch of carrots and then some oranges. It was a delightful combination with the orange juice enhancing the sweetness of the carrot juice. 

For this Bundt Bakers challenge, that great flavor partnership came to mind and I decided to recreate it in cake form. The batter is a modified version of our family favorite, David’s Carrot Cake and, instead of cream cheese icing, I used more marmalade for an extra boost of orange.

Orange Marmalade Carrot Cake

I baked this cake in a 12-cup Nordic Ware anniversary Bundt pan but it would no doubt fit in a 10-cup one as well. The marmalade adds extra stickiness to the cake, which is delicious, but also means you really need to grease and flour the pan well so it comes out neatly. You have been warned!

Ingredients

2 eggs at room temperature

1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar

3/4 cup or 190 ml canola or other light oil, plus extra for greasing pan

12 oz or 340g carrots

1/2 cup or 155g orange marmalade

2 cups or 250g flour, plus extra for the pan

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

½ teaspoon salt

For the glaze:

1/4 cup or 78g orange marmalade

Splash (or two) water

Method

Peel and cut the stem ends off of your carrots. Cover them with water in a medium sized pot and cook until very fork tender.  

Drain the water off and mash the carrots with a potato masher until there aren’t any lumps. Transfer the mashed carrots to a bowl and leave to cool.

When your carrots are cool and you are ready to start making the batter, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan by brushing it with oil (or butter) and flouring it.

Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, including the cooled carrots and mix well. 

 

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula and beat for about two more minutes on high.

Pour into your prepared pan.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. Set on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. 

Use a wooden skewer or toothpick to loosen the edges of the cake and invert it on the wire rack. Leave to cool while you make the glaze. As you can see, my cake stuck in a couple of places. Let this be a reminder to you to grease and flour your pan generously!

Gently warm the marmalade in a small pot over a low heat or in a bowl in the microwave. Add small splashes of water, stirring well, until you reach a good brushing or pouring consistency. Spoon or brush the glaze on the warm cake. 

Cool completely before slicing to serve.

 

Enjoy!

It’s time for my Bundt Baker friends to share cake recipes again! This month our chosen ingredient is jams, preserves or marmalades, incorporated in the batter or used as a swirl. Check out all the lovely recipes we have for you below: 

• Eggless Blueberry Preserve Bundt Muffins from Sneha's Recipe
• Jelly Donut Bundt Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Jijona Cream Bundt Cake from Patyco Candybar
• Orange Marmalade Carrot Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Bundt Cake from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Tennessee Jam Bundt from Palatable Pastime

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

Pin this Orange Marmalade Carrot Cake!

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Orange Marmalade Pumpkin Muffins #MuffinMonday

Thin shred marmalade mixed through sweet pumpkin batter makes these orange marmalade pumpkin muffins deliciously more-ish! Perfect for breakfast, snack or teatime!

When I was about five years old, we moved from Houston to Trinidad.  My father worked for Texaco and we lived in the small company camp of Pointe-a-Pierre.  When we first arrived, our house wasn’t ready yet because my father had asked them to install windows. All the little bungalows had screens to keep out the bugs, but no glass.  He says they called him a crazy American because he wanted windows!  Of course, his goal was an air-conditioned house and windows were essential to that plan.

Anyway, we stayed the first few weeks in the Texaco guest house, next to a main dining hall, and took most (all?) of our meals there. It was my first introduction to orange marmalade which looks just like a sweet jam but with little strips of orange rind. I was an all-American grape jelly eater so I knew sweet on toast and had no problem loading up with butter and marmalade. That first bite was bitter surprise. Followed closely by dismay. “Who eats this foul stuff?” I thought.

Fast forward years and years later, and I married a man who loves marmalade. He grew up eating the foul stuff, being of the British persuasion. We lived a few places where I couldn’t find orange marmalade for him so I started hauling back a large can of thin-cut Seville oranges  from the United Kingdom to make it myself. Because that’s the kind of person I am.

Each can was almost a kilo of prepared oranges. Just add water and sugar, cook it down and you have several jars of “homemade” marmalade to last the year. And, you know, I discovered that orange marmalade wasn’t near as bitter or nasty as I remembered it. In fact, it was quite nice.
I was delighted this week when I received the email with the #MuffinMonday recipe ( which came from this wonderful book ) because I knew my husband would love them.  If you are a fan of orange marmalade or if it’s been a long time since you gave it a second chance, try these. 

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1/2 cup shredded orange marmalade plus more to glaze
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup or 220g cooked pumpkin (canned or fresh)
1 cup or 240ml buttermilk  (or 1 tablespoon white vinegar mixed 10 minutes ahead with 1 cup or 240ml whole milk)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C and line your muffin tin with paper liners or spray thoroughly with non-stick spray.

Mix together all of your dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.

In another small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients except the butter: the orange marmalade, the eggs, the pumpkin and buttermilk. 

Once they are thoroughly mixed, whisk in the melted butter.

Pour the liquid mixture over the flour mixture and fold it in with a rubber spatula until the flour is incorporated.  Do not over mix.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into one comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes and then remove the muffins from the tin. 

Add about half a teaspoon of marmalade to the top of each muffin and spread it around with the back of your teaspoon to glaze.

Enjoy!