Orange Cake with a Twist

I guess every one has his favourite recipe for an orange cake. Mine is a very simple recipe , was my late Aunt Juliette favourite cake... Every time I like to do a simple cake with lots of flavours I return to this recipe , also it became a hit at the North Bay Farmer's Market (the customers were used to lemon cake flavour and not to the orange)

This time I made the cake and played with the recipe and took it to the next level, (this is a habit of me, playing and testing recipes all the time)

Original Recipe:

2 cups of flour
1 1/3 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of orange juice (pls use fresh for real flavour)
2 extra large eggs
1/2 cup of butter (my aunt used Crisco)
1/4 cup of water
1 tbsp of orange rind
2 tsp of baking powder
bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30 - 35 minutes

the twist:
instead of 1/4 cup of water I prepared orange curd and used 1/4 cup
instead of tbsp of orange rind, I added a cup of candied citrus which were prepared earlier for the fruit cake
bake at preheated 350F oven for 50 minutes or until it tested done

I leave you with the photos.... the flavours are awesome, spongy texture, rich, beautiful color and the candied citrus gave it the extra bite of orange in your mouth with I love so much....
the original recipe is awesome by itself, but if you like to get a richer flavour try the new twist...