Recipes

Orange Loaves

Date

Jan. 8, 2021

Learn about this recipe from our Historic Foodways staff, then try it at home.

A totally different approach to cake and fruit. Sugary and rich, this recipe reverses the practice of mixing candied fruit into cake, instead putting cake into candied fruit.

Learn how we make this recipe in our kitchens based on the 18th-century description below, then use our 21st-century translation to try the recipe at home!

18th Century

Take your orange, and cut a round hole in the top, take out all the meat, and as much of the white as you can, without breaking the skin; then boil them in water till tender, shifting the water till it is not bitter, then take them up and wipe them dry; then take a pound of fine sugar...

— Glasse, Hannah, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple,” 1796. 21st Century

21st Century

Ingredients

6 medium oranges
1 lb. sugar
1 quart water
4 oz. butter
4 oz. cream
2 eggs
4 tbsp. sherry
Sponge cakes or white bread — the equivalent of two large muffins in size
For topping: 3 oz. each of citron and candied orange peel and a sauce of 2 Tbsp. each of Sherry, melted butter and sugar heated and mixed together.

Instructions

Take your oranges and cut off the tops of each about one fifth the way down from the stem.
Scoop out the inside of the orange as best you can including the white. If you use a small tea spoon and hold the orange in your palm, it will be easier to scrape it out.
Boil the orange shells and lids in the water until tender but not folding or falling apart.
Take them out, let them cool some and pat them dry gently with a cloth.
Take half or more of the water the oranges were boiled in, add the sugar and bring to a boil in a medium stew pan.
While it is boiling add the orange shells and lids and let them boil a few minutes.
Take the pot off the heat and let it cool.
Put the oranges and water in a covered container and set them in the refrigerator for a couple of days to saturate with the syrup, stirring them a couple of times a day.
When they have saturated you are ready to fill them.
In a mixing bowl, beat your eggs very well, add the cream, cake crumb, butter and sherry. Mix this together well with a spoon.
Gently fill your orange shells with this “cake” mixture.
Bake the oranges and their lids in a 350° oven for close to half an hour or more. They should not get dark brown on the outside, but a deeper orange color. The “cake” should bake as well.
After coming from the oven, place the chopped citron and candied orange peel on top of each cake. After heating up the sherry, butter and sugar sauce spoon that over each cake to let it soak in. Send them to the table with lids on or next to them on the plate.