upside down blood orange drizzle cake

upside down blood orange drizzle cake

• 28 Sept 2020

When blood oranges appeared in my fruit shop last month I bought a few so I could make an upside down blood orange drizzle cake.



I pretty much followed this upside down lemon drizzle cake recipe, changing the proportions and adding some home made blood orange marmalade to the mix. I'm glad I did.



I like to prepare as much as I can before baking. Butter weighed out and chopped; flour measured and sifted; orange grated and juiced. I wasn't feeling very well so I threw the cake ingredients into the food processor and once the cake was in the oven, I found the carefully grated orange rind still in the fridge. Thankfully the blood orange marmalade was rind heavy and I added blood orange juice to the cake batter then doused the cake with orange syrup or else it wouldn't have tasted of blood orange at all.




Don't do what I do. Thankfully the cake came out moist and very orange flavoured, so I had nothing to worry about. It was delicious!



Here's the recipe for you, which makes a medium loaf 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.



Upside down blood orange drizzle cake
Topping
One small blood orange, thinly sliced
2 tbs raw sugar
4 tbs water

Cake
150 g unsalted butter (at room temperature) plus extra for greasing
135 g caster sugar
1 large blood orange, rind grated 
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
3 large eggs
150 g self-raising flour
⅓ cup almond meal
Pinch sea salt
60 mls blood orange juice

Syrup
2 tbs caster sugar
60 mls blood orange juice 

Method
To make the topping, place the blood orange slices into a small saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil then watch closely for 10 – 15 minutes or so until the water has almost evaporated and the orange slices are sticky. Set aside.

Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base and sides of a medium size loaf tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter, caster sugar and rind until pale and fluffy, then beat in the marmalade, followed by the eggs. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and a pinch of sea salt then fold through all the juice. You can do this in a stand mixer or a food processor.

Lay the reserved orange slices and any syrup over the base of the tin then gently spoon the cake mixture over the orange slices, trying not to dislodge them. Bake for about 50 minutes till risen and golden. Insert a metal skewer into the cake to see if it is ready. If it comes out clean, the cake is done; if it has mixture sticking to it, then it needs a few minutes longer. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside.

Syrup
Right towards the end of the cake’s cooking time, combine the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and bring just to simmer, cooking until the sugar has dissolved. Spike the top of the cake then spoon over the orange and sugar mixture. Leave to cool. When cool invert the cake and remove the baking paper. If the cake is domed, carefully level the top of the cake with a serrated knife first, so it will sit flat.

If you can't find blood oranges, you could make the cake with regular oranges but I would use half orange and half lemon juice in both the cake batter and the syrup, just to cut down the sweetness.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian