Try these 3 prize-winning orange cake recipes (1964)

Here are the top 3 winning recipes from the All-Florida Orange Dessert Contest in 1964

The Grand Prize winner was Mrs Malcolm (Mike) Pierson. Asked how she happened to develop the Orange Sunburst Cheesecake recipe that won an all-electric kitchen, a trip for two to the Grand Bahama Club, and numerous other prizes, the owner of hundreds of cookbooks said, “I had never seen an orange cheesecake recipe. But I couldn’t see why the flavors wouldn’t be compatible — my entry in the 1960 Orange Dessert Contest used cream cheese and oranges in the pancake filling. So I began experimenting.”

After three months of trying various combinations “on and off,” she came up with a cheesecake her husband likes. And her husband quipped, “It’s so delicious, I don’t know why someone hasn’t thought of it before.”

Orange sunburst cheesecake recipe

Mrs Pierson’s grand prize recipe

Orange-almond crust

1 cup sifted enriched flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/4 cup almonds, grated or finely chopped
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, orange peel and almonds; cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Blend thoroughly. Pat 1/3 of dough on the bottom of 9-inch springform pan with sides removed. Bake in hot oven at 400 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden. Cool. Butter sides of pan and slip in bottom. Pat remaining dough evenly up around sides of pan to about 2-1/4 inches from bottom crust. Refrigerate until ready to fill.

Orange-cheese filling

5 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons enriched flour
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. In large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, orange peel, salt and vanilla. Blend with electric mixer set on medium. Add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time. blending after each addition. Stir in cream.

Pour into crust-lined pan [above] and bake in 500-degree oven 8 to 10 minutes, or until top of crust appears golden. Reduce oven temperature to 225 degrees and bake 1 hour and 20 minutes longer. Let stand in oven 5 more minutes, then remove and cool in pan on wire rack.

Orange glaze recipe

1-1/4 cups orange juice
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 oranges, sectioned and well-drained

Dissolve gelatin in 1/4 cup orange juice; set aside. Mix cornstarch with 1-1/2 tablespoons orange juice and set aside. In a saucepan, combine remaining orange juice, lemon juice, sugar and salt; bring to a boil. Add cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly until clear and thickened. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture. stirring until dissolved. Add butter or margarine and stir until” blended. Cool slightly and spread half of glaze over cheesecake.

Dip orange sections in remaining glaze and arrange in pinwheel or sunburst design on cake. Whip cream, blend in the remaining glaze (about 1/2 cup), place in pastry tube and decorate outer edge and center of top. Chill at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut in 16 wedges and serve from bottom of cake pan.

Note: Two drops of yellow food coloring may be added to glaze if desired.

Orange loaf cake recipe (Poke-cake style)

Mrs Walker’s second prize winning recipe

Topping

2 cups sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange

Mix topping before starting to take cake; stir occasionally while mixing cake to dissolve sugar. After removing cake from oven and while still hot, puncture all over with ice pick and pour topping into holes. Let stand in pan until topping soaks in.

Batter

1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped pecans
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs, separated
1-1/3 cups buttermilk, mixed with 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons grated orange peel

Dredge nuts and dates in a small amount of the flour. Cream butter and sugar; add egg yolks, blend well. Add flour alternately with buttermilk in which baking soda has been dissolved. Fold in dates, nuts and orange peel; fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in a greased 10-inch tube pan (angel food cake pan) at 300 degrees for 1-1/2 hours. Makes 16 servings.

Orange party cake recipe

Mrs Hinson’s third prize-winning recipe

1 cup or 2 sticks margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, well-beaten
1/4 cup instant nonfat dry milk
1 cup fresh Florida orange juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Let all ingredients come to com temperature. Preheat oven 1 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of four 8- or 9-inch layer cake pans; dust with flour.

Beat eggs until lemon colored; set aside. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together twice. Cream margarine and sugar in large mixing bowl; add beaten eggs, vanilla, lemon extract and dry milk. Mix one minute at medium speed. Add orange juice and beat well. Add flour mixture. Beat at medium speed until flour is absorbed.

Measure by tablespoons into prepared cake pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until light brown. Cool cake layers in pans. Remove from pans; spread orange filling between layers, set aside to frost sides and top later.

Orange filling

1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1-1/4 cups fresh Florida orange juice, unstrained
2 egg yolks (save whites for frosting)
1/4 teaspoon yellow food coloring
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Combine sugar, cornstarch and grated orange rind. Stir 1 cup orange juice (reserve remaining orange juice). Add beaten egg yolks and food coloring. Cook over high heat until mixture is hot and bubbly around edge of saucepan. Reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick. Set aside to cool.

Just before spreading between cake layers, add the remaining 1/4 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice. Beat until smooth; spread between layers. Reserve 4 tablespoons filling to garnish top of cake. Frost top and sides of cake With Orange Fluffy Frosting.

>> You might also like this recipe: Orange zucchini cake & orange cream cheese frosting (1982)

Orange fluffy frosting

2 egg whites, unbeaten
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon white corn syrup
1/2 cup fresh orange juice, strained
1/8 teaspoon yellow food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place all ingredients in top of double boiler over boiling water. Beat with electric mixer at high speed for 5 minutes or until mixture stands in peaks. Spread frosting on top and sides of cake.

To garnish base and top of cake, slice unpeeled oranges thin, then cut each slice in half. Place orange slices on cake plate, cut sides against cake. Place half a maraschino cherry against side of cake at center of each slice. Place 2 very small orange leaves between each orange slice, with orange blossoms on the leaves if in season. Spread the reserved 4 tablespoons orange filling in a 1-inch wide circle on top of cake.