Glazed Orange Spice Cake

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces, plus more for greasing the pan - 3/4 cup sugar - 4 teaspoons fresh grated orange zest - 2 large eggs - 1/2 cup sour cream - 1/4 cup orange juice - 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg - 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - 1 teaspoon baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon salt For glaze: - 1/4 cup orange juice - 1 cup confectioner's (icing) sugar
Instructions
This was a recipe found online that I've modified to make it more flavourful. Instead of glaze, you can alternately dust the finished cake with the icing sugar, or with cocoa powder. Another topping you could use is some good-quality chocolate, melted and drizzled atop a cake slice. The zest is the most labourous part of the process. I gathered up the zest from two oranges while watching a DVD, and the zest will keep in an airtight container for two days until you're ready to mix and bake the cake. 1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square or round baking pan with butter, and line the bottom with parchment paper, then lightly grease the paper. 2. Beat the butter, sugar and zest in a large bowl until the mix is creamy. Add each egg one at a time, beating until just incorporated. Mix in sour cream and orange juice, then add remaining ingredients, blending until just mixed. 3. Transfer the batter into the baking pan and bake in the middle of the oven until golden and a wooden toothpick comes out clean from the center, 30-40 minutes. 4. Cool cake in pan on a metal wire rack for 10 minutes, then out of the pan on the rack. Use two clean dishtowels to pick up the pan and gently shake the cake out onto one of the towels, then invert the cake onto the other towel and place directly onto the rack. Throw away the parchment paper if it's stuck to the cake. 5. As the cake cools, mix the glaze ingredients together in a pot on low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved into the juice. Once the cake has cooled, transfer cake to a flat serving plate and pour glaze over the cake, or onto individual slices.