Oh Christmas Tree – Fruity Orange Cake for Christmas

This fruity orange cake is our contribution to the Christmas blog parade. Today, my fellow bloggers and I are decorating delicious Christmas trees to sweeten your holiday season!

On this 1st Advent, a group of creative food & baking bloggers have come together to “dance” around the baked Christmas tree with you and kick off a cozy & delicious Christmas season. To get us all in the Christmas spirit, this festive blog parade is all about Christmas tree recipes!

As you might have guessed, Christmas season is high season in our kitchen! We bake cookies in every variety (this year my Minis successfully tried stamp cookies for the first time), but also Christmas muffins and spiced Advent cakes that sweeten the wait for the Baby Jesus. This year, we’ll also be making many more edible gifts – like our popular chocolate bark – to send to our loved ones. It’s going to be a delicious & creative Christmas!

Since easy baking with children using simple recipes is always our focus, today my Minis and I are baking a moist, fruity orange cake, which they will decorate afterwards with lots of passion and attention to detail.

My blogging colleagues are also kicking off Advent in the most Christmassy way! Among all the pretty, creamy, crispy, colorful, and of course tasty Christmas trees, you can choose the one that might brighten your holiday table, too 😉 We wish you lots of fun browsing and a peaceful 1st Advent!

• Christmas cupcakes with almond-Baileys sponge, speculoos-cinnamon cream, mandarins & snowy Christmas trees by Loui Bakery
• Baumkuchen Christmas trees  by Feiertaeglich
• Spiced cake layers with forest berries, cinnamon mascarpone cream & gingerbread trees by Ninas Backstübchen 
• Edible gingerbread place cards by Kleid & Kuchen 
• Orange-pistachio tartlets with piped Christmas tree by culirena
• Cut-out Christmas tree cookies by Meine Torteria
• Christmas tree salted caramel drip cake with baked apple by backwolke
• Chocolate cupcakes with green frosting by vegansugarspoon
• Mini tree cakes with orange liqueur by herztopf  
• Speculoos-mandarin cake in pastel shades with Christmas tree decoration by Tinnis Zuckerwelt
• Buchteln Christmas tree by Kadis Backstüble
• Apple-cinnamon muffins with tonka bean cream Christmas tree top by Miller’s Bakerina
•  Sweet pull-apart bread by Lindenthalerin
• Winter orange marble cake with mascarpone-orange curd cream by Julias Torten und Törtchen
• Chocolate tart with crème fraîche by Vanillig

Recipe for our Fruity Orange Cake

The recipe for this moist orange cake is based on a simple sponge batter. The only real challenge is pureeing the orange including the peel. With a food processor or hand blender, this shouldn’t be a problem 😉 If you don’t have either, you can squeeze the juice and finely grate the zest into the batter. Depending on which method you use, you can decide whether your Mini can take on this task.

Otherwise, this sponge cake is a perfect chance for your child to help in the kitchen – but the most fun will surely be turning the orange cake into a Christmas tree cake 😉

Ingredients for a Christmas Tree Cake Tin

(for a 22 cm bundt tin, double the recipe)

Sponge dough

• 50 ml sunflower oil
• 125 g spelt flour
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1/2 organic orange with peel
• 2 small eggs
• 60 ml cream
• 1/2 packet of baking powder (7 g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

Decoration

• 100g powdered sugar
• 1–2 tbsp orange juice
• green food coloring (we used the one from GoodBake)*
• Colorful sugar pearls
• Golden sugar stars*

Discount code for your purchase at GoodBake: With the discount code “LIA12” you save 12% on your purchase from Goodbake.

Baking utensils

Mixing bowl, kitchen scale, hand mixer, food processor or hand blender to puree the orange, spatula, Christmas tree cake tin* (I used this one), cooling rack, small bowl, pastry brush

Mini tip: This Christmas tree cake tin holds 750 ml, which is about half a bundt cake recipe. If you double this recipe, you can bake the fruity orange cake in a standard bundt tin (about 22 cm diameter). backen.

Preparation

• First, the Christmas tree cake tin is greased by the Minis, and the oven is preheated to 165°C (top/bottom heat).

• For the sponge, wash the orange, quarter it, and remove any seeds.
• Blend together the orange and sugar in a tall container or food processor.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy and slowly add the orange-sugar mixture.
• Carefully fold in flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Finally, let your Mini add the cream, oil, and vanilla extract, mixing everything into a smooth batter.
• Fill the Christmas tree tin 2/3 full and bake for about 30–40 minutes (if you double the recipe for a bundt tin, bake for 60–70 minutes). Check doneness with the skewer test.
• Let the fruity orange cake cool well on the rack before your Mini decorates the Christmas tree cake.

• For the glaze, mix powdered sugar with orange juice. Add the juice little by little to avoid a runny glaze. Once it has the right consistency, add the green food coloring.
• Brush the cake with the glaze, then let your Mini decorate the Christmas tree with sugar pearls, chocolate pearls, stars, etc.

Isn’t this a beautiful and delicious way to start Advent?

We wish you and your Minis a peaceful 1st Advent and a wonderful Christmas season! 🎄✨ Happy baking!

Yours, Lia

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Do you still need Christmas presents? Then I now have a few ideas for you!

I put together a small list of (Christmas) gifts for baking fans! You're sure to find a nice little something to give away! Have fun strolling through my ideas.

Have you baked the recipe?

How exciting! We're really happy about that! We are pleased that we were able to delight you with our recipe. Feel free to share your treat with us on Instagram using the hashtag #backenmitminis.

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