As I have posted before, growing up we had some wonderful neighbors, the Sielerts and the Drurys. Bea Drury was a Sielert before she married Bill Drury. (Bill also happened to be my godfather!). Bea worked for the phone company and was always sharing the best recipes with my mom. The only banana bread recipe that I will ever use comes from Bea. This is another recipe that she shared with my mom and I consider it the best orange cake I have ever tasted. Like many recipes from the 60's and 70's it uses a boxed cake mix, it also uses a box of orange gelatin too. For the glaze you can either used thawed orange juice concentrate or freshly squeezed orange juice. I like to use the orange juice concentrate for two reasons, you get more orange flavor and it was what my mom always used. As always, enjoy!
Bea Drury's Orange Cake
1 box orange cake mix
1 small box orange gelatin
¾ cup of vegetable oil
¾ cup water
4 eggs
1/2 can of thawed orange juice
concentrate boiled with ½ cup white sugar
(or juice of three oranges boiled with
1 cup white sugar)
Beat the cake mix, gelatin, water and
oil together, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Grease a 9x13
inch cake pan and spoon batter into pan. Bake in preheated oven at
350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the
center comes out clean. When cake is done, poke holes all over the
top with a toothpick and then drizzle the hot orange syrup over the
baked cake and allow to cool completely before cutting.
