Meatless Monday: Whole Orange Cake

Welcome to the Meatless Mondays weekly recipe column, which promotes going without meat one day a week to reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Here we'll post favorite recipes submitted by neighbors and local restaurants in which vegetables are the main attraction. Have one you'd like to share? You can submit it here

Today's shared dish comes from yours truly.

If you love easy instructions, bundt pans, and the taste of citrus, this Whole Orange Cake from Sunset Magazine is one for the recipe box.

After testing it out on a group of friends for brunch over the weekend, I found it to be moist, incredibly dense, and not too sweet. In fact, the bits of pulsed orange rind yield a pleasant, slight bitterness. I look forward to trying the same recipe out with lemon and grapefruit in the future.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Ingredients

Cooking-oil spray (I used PAM Baking Spray)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened 
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (I used Diamond Organic)
3 large eggs 
2 oranges, ends trimmed then cut into chunks and seeded (I used Navel)
2 1/2 cups flour 
1/4 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder 
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 
2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp. orange juice (I used Tropicana, No Pulp)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat a 10-cup Bundt pan with cooking-oil spray. In a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add eggs to combine.
2. Whirl orange chunks in a food processor until mostly smooth but not puréed. Add 1 1/2 cups orange mixture to batter; beat until blended. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder to bowl and beat until smooth. Spread batter in bundt pan.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few crumbs clinging to it, about 55 minutes. Cool pan on a rack 10 minutes, then invert cake onto rack and let cool completely.
4. Whisk together powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake. Let glaze set; slice cake. Serve. Smile.

*Note: My glaze did not set up properly, which is why it does not feature as prominently in my photo as in the original recipe linked to above.