Glazed Orange Cake

This orange cake is a chiffon-style beauty cooked entirely in the microwave, which sounds questionable until you realize that chiffon cakes are all about delicate, airy structure, and the microwave actually handles that well. No dry, overbaked edges. Just even, gentle heat.

The technique borrows from angel food cake. Egg whites get beaten into a stiff meringue, then folded into a batter made with orange juice, vegetable oil, cake flour, and egg yolks. The meringue is what gives the cake its height and feathery crumb. Fold it in gently or you’ll deflate all that trapped air.

A full cup of fresh orange juice goes into the batter, giving the cake an intense citrus flavor that doesn’t need any extract to taste real. The orange glaze on top doubles down on that flavor and adds a sweet, glossy finish.

The glass-in-the-center trick is clever: pressing a glass through the batter creates a makeshift tube pan shape, which helps the microwave cook the center evenly.

Pro Tips

• Use room-temperature egg whites. Cold whites don’t whip to full volume, and you need maximum volume for this cake’s lift.
• Fold the meringue in gently using a spatula. Cut down through the center, sweep along the bottom, and fold over. Three passes maximum per rotation.
• Don’t open the microwave during cooking. The cake is fragile and can collapse from the temperature change.
• Cool the cake for a full 30 minutes before inverting. It needs time to set its structure or it’ll fall apart.

Variations

• Lemon chiffon: Replace the orange juice with lemon juice (use ¾ cup juice plus ¼ cup water to temper the acidity) and glaze with lemon icing.
• Orange poppy seed: Fold in two tablespoons of poppy seeds for a crunchy, visual contrast throughout the crumb.