This coffee cake recipe comes from Sunkist Orange Recipes for Year-Round Freshness, a 1940 advertising pamphlet for Sunkist oranges. Every single recipe in the booklet contains oranges in some shape or form – and every page contains eye-popping bright orange illustrations.

The coffee cake includes orange juice and zest in both the cake and the crumb topping.

I only made one change to the recipe; since I don’t have a 9 inch square pan, I had to use an 8 inch pan instead. I lowered the oven temperature and baked the coffee cake longer to adjust for a thicker cake. I ended up baking mine at 375 degrees for about 45-50 minutes.

Tasting notes:

This was delicious! I was worried that half a cup of orange juice would be too much, but this had just the right amount of orange flavor. The cake is beautifully fluffy and moist on the inside. My only slight complaint would be that topping started getting a little too crispy – but this could be because I baked mine in an 8×8 pan and had to bake it longer. In a 9×9 pan, the coffee cake would be thinner and wouldn’t have to stay in the oven for so long. On the other hand, I did enjoy cutting massive slices from such a tall coffee cake! Even with a slightly crispy topping, it’s delicious.