Cluck, Muck & Cook

Baking & Foodie Blog From Sunny Brentwood Essex

Blood Orange

0 Bake with the kids

Blood Orange Drizzle Cake

This time of year I go crazy for sweet vibrant blood oranges. They bring a ray of sunshine into a season of dreary fruit. So what better way to use the oranges than in a drizzle cake. Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a cuppa after a bracing dog walk with Chester our Cockerpoo.

Blood Orange Drizzle Cake

It is super simple to make and the kids can join in too. The sponge is basically a Victoria sandwich recipe, but when filled with the zest and a little juice of the oranges, it is transformed into a citrus delight. Then it is crowned with a sweet zesty orange syrup that oozes into the cake to make it super moist.

OK I am dribbling, I need to go and grab a slice.

Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
175g light brown soft sugar
175g plain flour
3 medium eggs
1 tsp baking powder
3 blood oranges (normal oranges will also work)
1/2 tsp orange extract (optional)
50g caster sugar

Method:

  1. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180˚C (160c Fan), Gas 4.
  3. In a stand mixer or with an electric hand whisk, cream the butter, brown sugar and zest of 2 oranges until light and fluffy.
  4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time. If it starts to curdle, add a couple of tablespoons of flour.
  5. Add the remaining flour and baking powder, a tablespoon of the juice of one of the oranges (and orange extract if using) and mix until combined.
  6. Pour into the lined loaf tin and bake for 45-55 minutes. Poke a skewer into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean it is done.
  7. Whilst the cake is in the oven, put the caster sugar in a small pan with about 6 tablespoons of orange juice and the zest of the remaining orange and simmer until the sugar has dissolved.
  8. When the cake comes out of the oven, pierce the top all over with a skewer. Then pour on the orange syrup you have made.
  9. Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing.

Blood Orange Drizzle Cake
 
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This time of year I go crazy for sweet vibrant blood oranges. They bring a ray of sunshine into a season of dreary fruit. So what better way to use the oranges than in a drizzle cake. Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a cuppa after a bracing dog walk with Chester our Cockerpoo.
Author:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 175g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
  • 175g light brown soft sugar
  • 175g plain flour
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 blood oranges (normal oranges will also work)
  • ½ tsp orange extract (optional)
  • 50g caster sugar
Instructions
  1. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180˚C (160c Fan), Gas 4.
  3. In a stand mixer or with an electric hand whisk, cream the butter, brown sugar and zest of 2 oranges until light and fluffy.
  4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time. If it starts to curdle, add a couple of tablespoons of flour.
  5. Add the remaining flour and baking powder, a tablespoon of the juice of one of the oranges (and orange extract if using) and mix until combined.
  6. Pour into the lined loaf tin and bake for 45-55 minutes. Poke a skewer into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean it is done.
  7. Whilst the cake is in the oven, put the caster sugar in a small pan with about 6 tablespoons of orange juice and the zest of the remaining orange and simmer until the sugar has dissolved.
  8. When the cake comes out of the oven, pierce the top all over with a skewer. Then pour on the orange syrup you have made.
  9. Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing.

 

50 Cakes

Blood Orange Upsidedown Cake

One great thing about being a baking social media geek is that it is very obvious when ingredients come into season in the Winter. The summer is a lot easier as I share an allotment with my father, so I tend to bake whatever is in harvest. However it is lovely to have something other than apples and pears to bake with, something with a fresh and vibrant colour and taste.

Blood Orange Upside Down Cake

This time of year one of my favourite ingredients comes back into season, blood oranges. If you have been looking at Pinterest recently, lots of recipes have been popping up. I had been planning an upside down cake for a while and have also been playing around with different sponge recipes.

I spotted some blood oranges in the local farm shop when we popped into their Cafe for a birthday breakfast treat for my wife.

Blood Orange

So this weekend was a perfect time to bring it all together. A fat free almond and orange cake, made moist with two oranges that have been simmered for a couple of hours to remove any bitterness and then blitzed to a pulp and mixed into the egg, sugar and almond mixture.

I carefully thinly slice 3 blood oranges on a mandolin and simmer them in the juice of an orange and sugar .

The remaining syrup I had planned to reduce down to glaze the top. Unfortunately I got side tracked and burnt it to a cinder and spent the next hour with all the windows and doors open, clearing the acrid smoke from the house and praying that no one called the fire brigade. Once I could see further than my nose in the kitchen, I ventured back in and knocked up another pan of orange syrup.
You could sneak a glug of Grand Marnier or Cointreau into the syrup to give it an extra kick on these cold winter days.

I scrunched up the baking parchment to line the tin’s bottom and up the sides, then laid in the slices starting at the centre and working my way outwards, finishing slightly up the sides.

Blood Orange Upside Down Cake

Once cooked and after dinner, I was dispatched to the garage to pick up some double cream to have with it. It is still the wife’s birthday weekend after all, I can be good on Monday.

175C/325F/Gas 3  – Serves 12

Sponge
2 large oranges
6 free-range eggs
250g/9oz ground almonds
250g/9oz caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder

Toping
2-3 blood oranges
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water

Instructions

  1. Rinse 2 oranges in hot water. Then add them to a large pan of simmering water and simmer gently for 2 hours.
  2. Leave the oranges to cool, chop up and remove any pips. Then put in a food processor or blender and whizz to a pulp.
  3. Slice 3 blood oranges thinly on a mandolin or with a sharpie knife.
  4. In a pan, add the water and caster sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
  5. Add the orange slices and simmer for about 15 minutes until the rinds become slightly translucent.
  6. Once cooked, remove the slices with a slotted spoon and allow to cool so you can handle them.
  7. Grease and line a 9 inch tin with baking parchment.
  8. Place the slices slightly overlapping all over the bottom of the tin, working outwards and slightly up the side to finish. Brush with a little of the syrup.
  9. Preheat the oven to 175C/155c fan.
  10. Beat the eggs and sugar together until they are light and fluffy and have reached the ribbon stage.
  11. Mix in all the remaining ingredients, including the orange pulp.
  12. Pour into the cake tin and cook for about an hour, until the cake is golden in colour and a a skewer comes out clean when inserted n the middle.
  13. Transfer to a wire cooling rack, keeping the cake in the tin. When the cake has cooled, carefully remove from the tin and gently peel off the baking parchment.
  14. Brush the top with any remaining syrup to glaze.