Gill Meller’s Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake

Gill Meller’s Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake

14 Sept 2026

When plum season rolls around I make plum cake and similarly when it's blood orange season I like to make a blood orange cake. I've had a look through my recipe index and I have at least 20 blood orange flavoured recipes, many of them cakes and all of them a little different. 

Some of the cakes are made with olive oil and many are butter based cakes made with almond meal and polenta or semolina instead of flour. I found this recipe from Gill Meller on the Stonegate Estate website. This is an almond meal and polenta based cake, so it's naturally gluten free. As I have a huge bag of raw almonds in the pantry I ground them to make some natural almond meal, which added some extra texture to the cake.

Here's the recipe for you which was adapted from this Gill Meller recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

I baked the cake in a springform tin and secured the base with some foil to prevent leakage, but ideally use a regular tin. I baked the cake in a17-cm cake tin but I think it would work even better if it were baked in a 20-cm cake tin. You'd need at extra orange or 2 to cover the base and a reduced bake time of around 45 minutes. 

Upside-down blood orange and almond cake

For the topping
3 small blood oranges
2 tbs caster sugar

Cake ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
112g caster sugar
2-3 tbs finely grated blood orange zest
2 eggs
3 cardamom pods, bashed and seeds crushed
112g ground whole almonds
60g fine polenta
½ tsp baking powder
A good pinch of sea salt

To finish
2 tbs warmed apricot jam
1-2 tsp boiling water
squeeze of lemon juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17-cm springform tin with baking paper.

Finely grate the orange zest and set aside. You should have 2-3 tbs of orange zest. Peel the zested blood oranges and slice them into ½ cm rounds, removing any pips as you go. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the base of the tin, then arrange the blood orange slices in a single, slightly overlapping layer.

Beat the butter with the caster sugar, crushed cardamom seeds, the blood orange zest until very pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix for another minute or two so it’s nice and light.

Combine the ground almonds with the polenta, baking powder and sea salt, then fold this mixture gently into the creamed butter and eggs.Spoon the batter carefully over the arranged orange slices, spreading it evenly without disturbing the fruit.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour in the preheated 170°C, conventional oven or until the cake has risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning it out so the blood orange topping is on display. 

I think the cake needs an overnight rest to mature before serving. If you'd like to glaze the cake, its best to do this just before serving as the glaze reabsorbs over time. To make the glaze, combine all the ingredients together then brush the fruit with the thinned apricot jam. 

The cake keeps beautifully for several days in an airtight tin and becomes more flavoursome over time. I put this to the test as I baked the cake just before heading out for a weekend away. When I returned the cake was even more delicious than when freshly baked.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

7 Sept 2026

I still rue the demise of the print version of Delicious Magazine because I like a hard copy from which to cook. Today's bake is a Michael James recipe which popped up on my Delicious Magazine IG feed. It looked appealling and best of all it was made with pantry items. I only needed to buy some more flaked almonds and the rest of the ingredients were already in my fridge or pantry.

One review I read complained that the cake batter was too generous for the tin size, and spilled out of the tin when baked. I adjusted all the ingredients down to fit my tin but even then the cake batter was close to overflowing during the bake. So I'd suggest filling the tin 2/3 only as it's inclined to rise during the bake.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from this recipe, which makes a 7 cm deep 17.5 cm x 8.5 cm (base) loaf. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

Almond praline

35g unsalted butter, chopped

pinch seasalt flakes

85g brown sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 small orange
25g honey or golden syrup
80g flaked almonds

Cake ingredients 
114g plain flour
35g dutched cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
pinch fine sea salt
150g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
85g buttermilk

Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced/170°C, conventional. Grease a deep 17.5 cm x 8.5cm (base) loaf pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Almond topping

Melt the butter, sugar, orange zest and honey or syrup in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and syrupy. Pour the syrup into the prepared pan, then sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over the top. Set aside to cool while you make the cake batter.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and the fine salt together into a medium bowl, then set aside. 

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. With the mixer still running on a slow speed, gradually add the egg to the butter mixture a little at a time, ensuring each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Alternate between adding a third of the dry ingredients and a third of the buttermilk to the mixer bowl, mixing well between each addition, until all the ingredients have been added and the batter has just come together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the batter is completely mixed.

Gently pour the batter into the pan over the almonds and caramel, ensuring the tin is only 2/3 full as the cake will rise. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 160°C fan-forced/170°C, conventional, or until the top is firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then set a wire rack over a tray lined with baking paper. Invert the still-warm cake onto the wire rack, then gently lift off the pan, being careful to avoid touching the caramel, which will still be extremely hot. 

Scrape any leftover almonds and caramel left in the pan onto the loaf. Cool completely before serving. 

This makes a deeply dark cocoa flavoured cake with a lovely almond praline topping. I think it would eat better with a more even cake to praline ratio so I might remake it as a slice or squares. Watch this space!

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rosinenschnecken

rosinenschnecken

31 Aug 2026

Last year I attended a conference in Freiburg, Germany. I'd heard good things about a bakery in Freiburg called Brotbruder so I made my way across town. The bakery was busy with a queue outside, always a good sign, and I treated myself to a Rosinenschnecken, aka, a raisin snail.

The snail was lovely and I wanted to recreate it when I came home. I had little to go on because all the recipes I found online didn't match the snail I'd consumed. From my memory the dough wasn't sweet and there didn't appear to be a frangipane or custard filling. The roll was topped with a shiny glaze, which may have been the only sweetening.

I used my foolproof overnight rise dough, topped it with a vanilla butter filling and plumped sultanas. I baked half the batch and covered each snail with lashings of vanilla flavoured glace icing as they came out of the oven. I was quite disappointed. I found the snails tooth achingly sweet so for the second batch I remade the glaze with lemon juice which I drizzled over each snail.

These snails were so much better then the first batch. They were smaller than the Brotbruder snails though so I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit and see if I can get a snail even closer to the original. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 snails and you will have to make the dough a day or 2 before making the snails. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Rosinen Schnecken

Dough
1¼ tsp yeast
150 mls lukewarm milk
30g caster sugar
1 room temperature egg 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
60g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling
75g sultanas (golden raisins)
50g unsalted butter, softened
55g caster sugar
1 tbs almond meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch seasalt flakes

Assembly
Melted butter/beaten egg/cream

Icing
150g icing sugar, sifted
1-2 tbs lemon juice
 
Dough
Grease a large plastic container and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and sugar in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been incorporated (about 10 minutes) increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, and the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. 

Transfer the dough to the prepared container. Cover the container with a lid or with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the container and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the container and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Replace the lid or tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

Whilst the dough is resting, prepare the sultanas. Place the sultanas in a small heatproof bowl, then cover with ½ cup of boiling water or tea and steep for a minimum of 1 hour.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge. Flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature.  

Filling
Thoroughly drain the sultanas, then make the filling by mixing the remaining ingredients into a smooth paste.

Assembly

Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Roll the dough out into a rectangle measuring about 40 x 25 centimetres. Spread the filling evenly over the dough then sprinkle with the drained sultanas. Place the dough with the short side in front of you and use a ruler and a sharp knife or pizza cutter to mark out eight 3-cm slices. Roll each slice firmly to form a tight roll then place 4 snails onto each prepared tray with plenty of space between the snails. Cover the trays with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise for 1 hour or until puffed and well risen.

While the buns are proofing, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. When the buns have proofed, brush the tops of the buns with the beaten egg, melted butter or cream. Place the tray of buns onto the centre rack of the oven then bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack.

Glaze
Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until you have a smooth thick glaze. Liberally drizzle each snail with the glaze while they are still warm and let cool before serving.

These are best served the day of baking but can be kept overnight in an airtight container and served the next day.

I froze 2 uncooked buns and pulled one out to defrost and bake when the need for a raisin snail arose. I can confirm they freeze really well and are a real treat when eaten freshly baked and iced.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

24 Aug 2026

I was invited to a friend's place for dinner and I usually bring the dessert. As it's rhubarb season here I decided to make a rhubarb frangipane tart but with a twist. Instead of making the frangipane with almond meal alone, the frangipane was made with a mix of pistachio and almond meal. The idea came from Nicola Lamb's fancy rhubarb tart recipe which is in her cookbook, Sift.

I sourced some pistachio meal but I find the taste of pistachio meal a bit intense so I added in some almond meal to balance out the flavour of the frangipane. The rest of the tart is a tried and true recipe that I've been making for many years.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 11 x 33cm tart. You’ll only need about half the pastry for this recipe. The pastry freezes well, so wrap securely and freeze until needed. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart 

Filling  
1 bunch of rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 10-cm lengths
85g caster sugar 
thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange  
1 cinnamon quill  
 
Pastry  
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/25g almond meal 
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 
110g cold unsalted butter, diced 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
Cold water 
 
Frangipane 
100g unsalted butter 
100g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
2 tsp grated orange rind 
1 large egg 
50g pistachio meal
50g almond meal 
2 tbs plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 

To assemble
½ cup rhubarb or raspberry jam
Sieved warmed apricot jam 

Method 
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Arrange rhubarb snugly in a baking dish, scatter sugar and orange peel over, drizzle with juice and add cinnamon quill. Cover with foil and roast for 5-10 minutes or until you can just pierce the rhubarb with a knife. Set aside to cool. You’ll need about 325g of the rhubarb slices. I like to cook the rhubarb juices until they form a syrup, which I then mix with apricot jam when glazing the tart.

Pastry

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thickness. Line a rectangular (11x33cm) tart tin with the pastry and return to the fridge while you prepare the filling. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the centre rack.

Filling 
Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and orange rind together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg  followed by the flour, ground nuts and salt to form a soft batter. You can also do this step in the food processor.

Assembly 
Remove the tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with the jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife then arrange the rhubarb lengths over the frangipane filling. 

Place the tart on the baking tray in the preheated oven. Reduce the oven to 190°C, conventional and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. If the rhubarb is drying out too much cover with foil or baking paper. When baked, remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam. Just before serving, unmould from the tin and cut into slices.

This received rave reviews from the dinner party guests who declared it the perfect mix of sweet and sour and that it needed no adornments.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passionfruit bundt cake

passionfruit bundt cake

17 Aug 2026

It's passionfruit season in Sydney and when I saw a net of plump passionfruit in the grocery store, I had to buy one. My first thought was to make a passionfruit cake and I baked it in my favourite bundt tin.

Rather then re-inventing the wheel, I used a favourite Aran Goyoaga lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake recipe as my base and turned it into a passionfruit version. As it's an oil based cake, it's quick and easy to put together.

Here's the recipe for you which will make a 5-cup bundt cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passionfruit bundt cake 
Cake
65g (¼ cup) fresh or frozen passionfruit pulp (I don’t like seeds so I blitz the pulp, then strain out the juice.

2 tbs (40g) full fat yoghurt 
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
100mls (80g) extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Passionfruit icing
20g unsalted butter, melted
70g icing sugar, sifted
1 passionfruit

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour a 5-cup bundt tin and place in the fridge until needed.

Combine the passionfruit juice/pulp with the yoghurt and set to one side.
Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set aside. 

In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt mixture and stir until a smooth batter is formed.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt tin and bake on the centre rack for 45 to 50 minutes at 180°C, conventional or until a cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack, set over a baking tray. While the cake cools, make the icing.

Passionfruit icing
Place the melted butter in a small bowl. Add the icing sugar then enough passionfruit pulp to make a smooth thick icing. Beat vigorously until shiny, then pour the icing over the cake.  

If the icing thickens too much, zap it for a few seconds in the microwave. Once iced, set the cake aside to let the icing set before serving.

The passionfruit icing is definitely the MVP here and I ate half the icing before it made it's way to the cake! The cake also received a tick of approval from my taste testers.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

10 Aug 2026

As the 10 year old birthday girl has simple tastes I decided to make cupcakes for her bithday celebration. I took a tried and tested chocolate cake recipe from Clare Scrine and turned it into cupcakes. To reduce the ingredient quantity to suit the tin size I had to reverse engineer the process so out came the calculator, a pen and paper. 

The batter needed 1½ eggs but I didn't feel like cracking a second egg so I added a little more sour cream to the batter. I wasn't sure about the bake time either, so I started with 15 minutes and the cupcakes weren't quite ready so I added another 5 minutes and they were done.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 cupcakes, adapted from a Clare Scrine recipe. The icing recipe is generous so you may have some leftover. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

Cake
1 egg
75g sour cream
100ml/90g vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
50ml black coffee, cooled or water
1 tsp vanilla extract 
110g finely grated zucchini
135g brown sugar
scant ½ tsp sea salt flakes
120g self-raising flour
scant ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
35g  Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Chocolate cream cheese icing
125g cream cheese, at room temperature
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
Pinch sea salt flakes 
140g icing sugar
25g dutched cocoa powder 

60g melted dark chocolate, cooled

To top
Dark chocolate flakes or sprinkles

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Grease a 6 hole Texas muffin tin and dust with flour or cocoa. If you like you can place a small piece of baking paper into the base of each hole.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, vegetable oil, cooled coffee/water and vanilla until well combined and a little frothy. Add the zucchini and stir well to combine. 

In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar, salt, flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined, ensuring you scrape right to the bottom of the bowl to mix well. 

Distribute the mixture evenly between the muffin holes (about 110g/hole), then transfer to the oven and bake for 20–25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out mostly clean. It’s important not to overcook the cakes, so keep a close eye on them. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Carefully loosen each cake with an offset spatula before unmoulding and placing on a cooling rack.

Chocolate cream-cheese icing
Place the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and salt flakes into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa on top. Beat with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes on speed 4 until fluffy. Stir through the cooled melted chocolate. Store covered in the fridge until needed. If the cream cheese icing is too firm, zap it in the microwave for a few seconds to rewarm.

Just before serving, top each cake with a generous dollop of the cream cheese icing and some chocolate flakes. 

The cupcakes were a hit and were described as the 'most delicious chocolate pillows' and best of all, the non fruit eating birthday girl didn't notice the zucchini in the cake. Even this non chocolate believer thought they weren't too bad.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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