Orange bundt cake perfection

I make a point not to buy butter or have it in the fridge. Its bad for you, right? Clogs up your arteries with a thick (but deliciously buttery) gunk. I also don't buy cookies, sweets, candy or chocolate for the kids. (Of course I buy it for me. It's in my family's best interest that I succumb to an illicit chocolate hit craving a few times during the day). So, you'd think I spend my days eating well and feeling pretty pious about my family's healthy diet wouldn't you. Well, we're not UNHEALTHY but I actually spend quite a lot of my time looking for recipes to bake cakes and cookies and cupcakes and breads myself and if there's a recipe WITHOUT butter in it ~ it's like winning that golden ticket.

Our orange tree is as generous with its fruits as our lemon tree and I have been trying to use as many oranges as I can, though picking the oranges often proves to be a problem. They are so securely attached to the tree that you need to give them a really good yank to get them off. Yanking, pulling or shaking a branch of a tree heavy with oranges whilst you are standing underneath it is not a good idea. Let's just say I have taken to wearing a bike helmet whilst baking with my citrus fruits.

This is the second time I have made this orange bundt cake and it is seriously good. I like the recipe because it calls for vegetable oil and not butter.

I found the original recipe here but I made a couple of changes. Here's how to make it my way :

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan. In a small bowl, combine milk, 1/2 cup orange juice, oil, beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons orange zest. Set aside.
2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour batter into bundt pan and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

I made a little frosting to pour on the top simply by stirring together some confectioner's sugar with water until it was a thick, sticky yet runny consistency. I then grated in more orange zest to taste and poured it over the top of the cake.

Enjoy! (And you can eat as much as you like because there's no butter in it.)