upside down blood orange and almond cake

upside down blood orange and almond cake

• 20 Oct 2025

I was just about to fly overseas for 5 weeks when I realised I didn't have enough blog posts to cover me while I was away. I didn't want to buy any groceries so I looked around the kitchen and the fruit bowl looking for inspiration. I had a few blood oranges and a tangelo, so I knew whatever I made would be citrus flavoured.

Helen Goh has just launched her first book, Baking and the Meaning of Life, and some of the recipes have appeared online. I saw a photo of her Rhubarb, Vanilla & Almond Tessellated Cake and with a few tweaks it became an upside down blood orange and almond cake. I was going to bake it in a square tin but I rediscovered some of my old loaf tins whilst fossicking through my pot drawer, so it became a loaf cake.

Here's the recipe for you, inspired by a Helen Goh recipe, which will make either a small loaf cake or a 17cm square cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Upside down blood orange and almond cake 
Oranges
2-3 medium blood oranges 
2 tbs caster sugar

Cake
90g self-raising flour (I used GF)
pinch fine sea salt
100g almond meal
185g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
185g caster sugar
4 tsps (minimum) grated orange rind
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs warm marmalade or apricot jam thinned with 1 tbs water

Method
Grease and line the base and sides of a small loaf tin or a 17cm square tin with baking paper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional.

Prepare the blood oranges
Grate the rind from 2 of the blood oranges and set aside. You'll use this to flavour the cake batter. Use a sharp knife to cut off all the pith exposing a colourful round of fruit. Place the orange on its side then slice the fruit as thinly as possible. Remove and discard any seeds from the slices and repeat until both oranges are sliced. If you don’t have enough slices to cover the base, then use half of the third orange. 

Sprinkle 2 tbs caster sugar over the base of the tin. Arrange the orange slices in an overlapping pattern across the bottom of the pan, covering the base completely and set aside.

The cake
Sift the flour and salt together in a small bowl. Add the ground almonds to combine, then set aside for the time being. Place the butter, sugar and the reserved orange rind into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula this will ensure it is evenly moved. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat after each addition until combined, then spoon in half the flour mixture. Beat on low speed for about 10 seconds, until just incorporated then remove the bowl from the machine and fold in the remaining dry ingredients and vanilla extract with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter carefully over the blood orange slices and spread it with a spatula to form an even layer. Bake on the middle rack of the preheated 180°C, conventional for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning the tin upside down onto a serving plate. 

For a nice shine you can glaze the top of the cooled cake with some warmed marmalade or apricot jam. The cake is lovely as is or can be served with some whipped cream. The cake is best served on the day it is made but may be kept in a cool place for up to 2 days.

This was a simply lovely butter cake. It had a perfect crumb, tender from the almond meal, with freshness from the blood orange. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian