Orange slice cake

I promised someone a recipe for Orange Slice Cake (the anti-fruitcake). Finally found my mom's recipe, so here it is.

1 pound margarine
2½ cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
2½ cups flour

Mix all above in order given. Dredge in 1 cup of flour. Fold the following into the above mixture:

1 pound orange slices, chopped
1 pound chopped dates
1 pound chopped pecans
1 pound cocoanut

Bake in three lined narrow loaf pans at 275 degrees for 1¼ to 1½ hours.

Ice while hot with:
2 (small) cans frozen orange juice (do not dilute)
4 cups powdered sugar

(The only difficult part of this is dicing the orange slices. If you can, find orange slice bits. Chopping the candy quickly creates a sticky situation; I've tried using flour, water on the knife, and nothing really works well.)

(As you can tell, this is a BIG recipe, and I like to bake lots of small loaves and freeze them for sharing or for future consumption.)