Color me orange - Whole Wheat Orange Bundt Cake

Whole Wheat Orange Cake may not sound as tempting as, let's say, Cookie Dough Brownies, but keep reading! It's good, I promise!!  Don't let the whole wheat flour fool you into thinking this is going to be dry...far from it.  It's nice and moist with orange juice, orange zest, and an orange glaze on top for good measure!  Oh, and it's EGG FREE! (Which only excites those of us dealing with allergies or who are vegan I guess, but...yay!)  I made this to take to my parents' house for Father's Day, so it was nice to have a dessert that everyone, including Mr. Three, could enjoy.

Whole Wheat Orange Bundt Cake (Adapted from Leaves of Wheatgrass)

■3 cups whole wheat pastry flour  *I used 1-1/2 cups whole wheat and 1-1/2 cups all-purpose since I can't find whole wheat pastry flour anywhere!

■2 teaspoons baking soda

■1/2 teaspoon baking powder

■1 teaspoon salt

■1 cup sugar

■2/3 cup canola oil

■2 cups orange juice *I used orange juice with pulp so I would have little bits of orange, same for the glaze.

■2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

■2 teaspoons vanilla extract

■1 teaspoon orange extract *I didn't have any orange extract so I used a tablespoon of orange zest

Preheat oven to 350F.  Oil and flour a 12-cup bundt pan very thoroughly. {go HERE to find out why this is important! I, of course, learned the hard way.} Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and pour the wet mixture into the dry. Whisk just to combine, being careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and tap it on the counter a couple times to get rid of the air bubbles.

Bake on the middle oven rack for about 45 minutes, or until the cake is light golden brown and a tester comes out mostly clean.

Cool completely in the pan before flipping onto a wire rack. Hopefully, it will come out looking like this...

Thoughts - this is a tasty, moist cake with a hint of citrus flavor.  You can make a glaze to go on top of 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with enough orange juice to give it the desired consistency.  Ashley (Leaves of Wheatgrass) also mentions a chocolate ganache for a topping, which would be fabulous!  I would like to try the cake with the orange extract in addition to the orange zest.  You could even increase the zest, or add a variety of lemon, lime and orange zest, for a more intense flavor.  I'm a zesting fool. I've been adding it to everything!

So go ahead and make this cake.  It's practically a health food with it's whole wheat flour and orange juice.  And orange juice makes it a perfectly acceptable breakfast food too :)

I'm linking this recipe up with Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays @ 33 Shades of Green, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday @ For The Love Of Blogs,http://bluecricketdesign.net/, At Home with Haley, Lady Behind the Curtain,  Little Brick Ranch, These Chicks Cooked, Miz Helen's Country Cottage, Mangoes and Chutney for Fat Camp Fridays, EKat's Kitchen, Local Fun for Kids, Sweet as Sugar Cookies, Feeding Four, It's a Keeper, Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo, Eat at Home for Ingredient Spotlight: powdered sugar, Finding Joy in my Kitchen for Ingredient Spotlight: citrus, Memories by the Mile