Recipe
Ingredients:
5 large eggs
1 ¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. Salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp. Orange zest
1 cup orange juice
2 ¼ cups flour|
2 tsp. Baking powder
Powdered sugar for top of cake
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 320° fahrenheit and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks and pour the egg whites into a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on medium speed and gradually add your sugar. 
Whip egg whites and sugar on high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy with stiff peaks. Add your orange juice, egg yolks, vanilla extract, orange zest, salt, and vegetable oil. Mix everything together on low speed until combined.
Add your flour and baking powder. Mix until fully incorporated with no lumps.
Pour the mixture into your previously lined baking pan and smooth with a spatula.
Bake in your preheated oven for 40-45 minutes and top the cake with powdered sugar when it is done.
Family Significance:
When we held our first Rosh Hashanah dinner, we required a dessert and stumbled upon orange cake. Though my family is Ashkenazi and orange cake is traditionally a sephardic dessert, we made it for the holiday. Ever since, we have enjoyed it because of its light flavor and easy recipe. This cake doesn’t have a long history but it will have a long future in our family!
Cultural Significance:
Orange cake is a Sephardic Jewish recipe, as opposed to most other recipes on this website being from a more European background. The cake comes from North African and Spanish roots, and it showcases the interesting history between Jewish people and citrus fruits. Sephardic jews were among the first sellers and distributors of citrus, while Ashkenazi peddlers started selling oranges in several places across Europe during the nineteenth century. This sale of oranges among other citrus fruits supported many jews and the fruit became a significant part of cooking for jews, resulting in the orange cake as well as hundreds of other orange-based dishes.