Orange Dreamsicle Cake- Delicious Homemade Recipe
I love everything about this cake recipe- and I also love it's uniqueness. It's not every day that an Orange Dreamsicle Cake is on the dessert menu (but it should be)!
The cake tastes fantastic, and the light orange filling and orange cream cheese frosting are the perfect complement to the flavorful orange cake layers.
Table of Contents
Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
What if I Prefer the Traditional Method of Mixing?
We hear from bakers that love the reverse creaming of method of mixing, and others that prefer the traditional creaming method.
If you prefer the Traditional Mixing Method (creaming the butter and sugar, adding eggs, adding the wet and dry ingredients alternately, etc.) we have a wonderful orange cake for you!
We have another delicious Orange Cake recipe that we came up with after creating this Orange Dreamsicle Cake. You really can't go wrong with this recipe- it is very fluffy, and moist, and has wonderful orange flavor.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
It's flavorful, pipeable, and silky smooth! You're going to love this recipe!
Orange Cream Filling
This orange cream filling is SO delicious and can be whipped up in a matter of minutes with instant pudding, cream, and flavoring!
This filling recipe always receives rave reviews and nobody would ever guess how easy it is to whip up. It's very adaptable for a number of flavors, we use the chocolate "mock mousse" version all the time.
More Fruity Cakes
Love fruity cakes? In addition to today's orange dreamsicle cake, we have several more refreshingly flavorful cake recipes for you to try!
Orange Pineapple Cake- Orange Cake Layers, pineapple & cream filling and whipped orange mascarpone frosting!
Lemon Orange Cake This is such a delicious combination of lemon and orange flavors, including homemade orange curd filling!
Homemade Lemon Cake- A classic- This is a favorite year-round.
Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake- If you've never tried the combination of cherry cake and chocolate chips, you MUST! So good.
Lime Cake from Scratch- So fruity and refreshing!
Strawberry Cake - We love this moist scratch strawberry cake recipe!
...and SO many more! We hope that you enjoy the recipe! Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Orange Dreamsicle Cake- Delicious Homemade Recipe
This moist and delicious cake tastes just like an Orange Dreamsicle! Moist orange cake layers with orange cream filling and orange cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 ½ cups (285g) cake flour
- 1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon (12g) baking powder
- 1 ½ sticks (12 T) (169g) unsalted butter....Cut into ½ inch slices onto waxed paper to soften slightly. Your finger should make a slight indentation but not sink in easily. If it becomes too soft, refrigerate for a few minutes. Do not soften in microwave
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup (190g) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
- ½ cup (121g) milk
- 1 Tablespoon (10g) orange extract
- zest of 1 orange
- Orange Coloring Gel (optional) We used a small amount to tint some reserved orange cream cheese frosting so that we could apply it to the cake here and there for a swirled effect.
For the Orange Cream Filling:
- 1 small box instant Vanilla pudding (3.4oz/96g) We used Jello- Brand
- 2 c. (464g) heavy cream or whipping cream.
- 1 tsp. (4g) Orange Extract (we used McCormick)
For the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 2 sticks (1 cup) (226 g) unsalted butter, let it sit out until slightly softened.
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (total weight 452g) I use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft. Do not soften the cream cheese.
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) clear vanilla extract (we used clear to keep color lighter)
- 1 teaspoon (4g) orange extract
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g) optional - it will cut the sweetness, popcorn salt is best to use because it is fine and dissolves faster
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
- Orange Coloring Gel (optional) We used a very small amount for tinting.
Instructions
For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (This Recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.)
Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch round pans.
In the bowl of your mixer add the dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix with your mixer for 30 seconds or whisk to blend ingredients.
In a separate bowl, add the eggs, orange juice concentrate, milk, orange extract and zest.
With the mixer on low speed, add the slices of butter a few pieces at a time to the dry ingredients. Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until the dry ingredients look crumbly and moistened. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl.
SLOWLY add ½ of the egg mixture, increasing to medium speed for 1 ½ minutes, the batter will become thick and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Add a small amount of Orange Coloring Gel to the bowl if you would like the batter to be orange. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Let the cakes cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out.
Works well for cupcakes.
Makes 6 cups batter.
For the Orange Cream Filling:
Combine the pudding mix and heavy cream and orange extract in a mixing bowl. I prefer to mix with a hand held mixer, but a whisk is just fine too. If using a mixer, start on low speed until well combined. Then, switch to high speed and whip the pudding until thick and fluffy. If mousse is too thick, mix in small amounts of heavy cream to reach desired consistency.
If mixing by hand, simply whisk rapidly for a couple of minutes or until mixture is nice and thick.
Refrigerate until ready to use. Cakes with this filling should be chilled until close to serving time.
For the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
Add the vanilla and orange flavorings. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat.
This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake. When decorating our Dreamsicle Cake, we frosted our cake and then went back in with swirls of lightly tinted orange frosting for a pretty effect.
Hi Martha, Thank you so much for leaving a comment about the recipe. We are thrilled that your daughter loved her birthday cake!!
My mother made this cake,it was Fabulous!!!! My whole family enjoyed very much after eating it. Thanks for this amazing recipe……
http://www.cakengifts.in/birthday-cakes
I have all but stopped using the regular creaming method. I am a professional cake baker and this is the best method especially if you are tiering a cake. Follow the directions EXACTLY. Never fails for me. This recipe can be used for so many different cakes, just change what liquid and flavorings you use. This is to me a perfect summer cake.
Can I convert this to a sheet cake? Would you recommend it being done at the same temp for the same length of time?
Hi Esther, Thank you so much for posting your thoughts on reverse creaming and the recipe.
Hi Lynette, the recipe can be made as a sheet cake. A 9x13 pan would need 7 cups of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. The cake would probably be only 1 1/2 inches high since this recipe makes 6 cups of batter. You could double the recipe for 12 cups of batter and fill the 9x13 pan 1/2 to 2/3rds full for a 2 inch high sheet cake. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. It is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. You will have left over batter for a few cupcakes. If you have rose nails, you could add two to the bottom of the pan before filing to bring heat to the center of the cake. At about 40 minutes into baking you might want to cover the top of the pan loosely with aluminum foil if you think it is coming too brown.
Can I make this in a 9x13 cake pan? It's easier to feed my coworkers that way. Thanks!
Hi Lisa, This recipe only makes 6 cups of cake batter so your cake would not be very tall. You could increase the ingredients by 1/2 for more batter. Here are links to two cake batter amounts according to pan size that you will find helpful
http://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
Thank you!
To those struggling with falling cakes or rising problems, check your elevation. I'm at about 5,000 feet and I've had to adjust all my recipes. If you google high elevation baking, you'll get some great results. Personally, I use the Craftsy recommendations. It's a nice table that actually tells you the percentages to increase or decrease ingredients. I just use a calculator against the weight measurements and it tells me exactly how much to add or subtract. It' been a game changer for me and I hope it helps others.
My 6 year old grandson asked for an orange cake this year for his annual birthday cake, and I was really worried. There aren't too many scratch orange cakes on the internet. Luckily, the ingredients for this Dreamsicle Cake sounded just right. One problem though....I generally do not do well with cake flour. Every recipe I have ever made using cake flour has failed. Either they sink in the middle, deflate to half there height, or pull away from the sides of the cake pan so far that instead of an 8" cake, I end up with a 6". I've been baking for my family successfully for years, but using cake flour remained an obstacle. So, it is with great pleasure that I share that this cake performed beautifully! I made 2 8" square cakes for a robot cake, and one tester cupcake. Everything came out perfectly! The cupcake proved that this recipe is as delicious as the name sounds!
Thank you so much for this inspiring recipe. I made cupcakes out of this delicious recipe for labor day weekend. This will never be a throw away. My cupcakes came perfect!??