Astonishing that these brightly coloured fruit are at their best during the bleakest of months. If you haven’t had the pleasure of tasting these little gems, I highly recommend you do. With a tart-sweet flavour and ruby-red juice they are wonderful to cook with too.
There are three main varieties, Tarocco, Moro and Sanguinello, which is often juiced. This year I stumbled across Ippolito, a larger, sweeter variety with an intensely coloured flesh. Whichever you choose, try to find organic, or be prepared to spend a little time scrubbing the wax off because the bitterness of the skin is an essential part of this cake’s distinctive flavour profile. I’ve also dowsed this cake with a fruity caramel to make it dazzle.
This variety of blood orange is called Ippolito and originates in Italy. It has a short season with February being the best time to find it in the UK.
Blood Orange & Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 3 blood oranges small
- 3 eggs large
- 140 g golden caster sugar
- 90 g plain flour
- 100 g ground almond
- 1 tsp ginger ground
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 50 g butter melted
Orange Syrup
- 1 blood orange juice of
- 100 g caster sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 155°C fan. Grease the sides of a 20 cm cake tin (not springform) then cut a disc of baking parchment for the bottom. Very finely slice 2 oranges and place them, over-lapping one another in the base of the tin.
- Place one orange in a small saucepan and cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for approximately one hour or until very soft. Remove from the water and allow to cool a little. Cut in half, remove any pips. Chop it all up very fine, it will be quite mushy. Scoop it all up and place into a bowl.
- For the orange caramel: Juice the remaining orange and have it ready to add to the sugar. Take the sugar and place into a saucepan. Heat until it starts turning to a medium caramel colour, swirling the pan to help dissolve the sugar. Swiftly add the orange juice, it will bubble and spit so be careful. Now bring it back to a boil, to dissolve the caramel that has set, stir as you heat. Once dissolved carefully pour over the sliced oranges.
- Combine all of the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, ginger and ground almond. Set to one side. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl with an electric whisk or in a free standing mixer until really thick, light and fluffy, takes about 5 minutes. Now fold in the dry ingredients along with the melted butter and finally the orange pulp.
- Pour the batter on top of the oranges in the cake tin and place in the oven immediately. Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is firm in the centre and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Transfer the cake to a plate. Serve with Greek yogurt or creme fraiche.
Muhammara Dip with Pitta Bread
Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.
It’s a pleasure and glad you like this recipe and my website.
Hello Louise this cake looks stunning.
Do you have any advice on gluten free flours to replace the all purpose with?
Hi Beatrice, I have two suggests, replace the plain flour with ground almond, so use a total of 190g or use Doves Farm (UK Brand) a very good GF plain flour. Hope that helps.
Just tried this recipe after getting a load of blood oranges in our fruit & veg box. Absolutely delicious, definitely a winner! Thank you
Ahhh, lovely to here Mike! Thanks for taking the time to comment too :-))
This looks like a lovely recipe. Unfortunately I did not read ahead, so I combined all the dry ingredients as instructed, including the sugar, before realising the butter and sugar should be beaten together. My own fault of course, but I hope this might prevent another reader from making the same mistake. I’m sure it will still taste great, maybe just not as light as your original version.
Hi Lynne, I’m sorry you’ve had this issue, I’ve amended the recipe so hopefully it won’t happen again. However, the sugar should be beaten with the eggs, then the flour with melted butter ;-))
Is one small blood orange enough for the pulp that goes into the cake itself? I’m wondering as mine are quite small, if using 2 will add more flavour? But not sure whether you’d then need to adjust the quantities of the other ingredients? Any guidance much appreciated! Thank you
one small blood orange for the pulp will be absolutely fine. Don’t forget there’ll be plenty of flavour from the sliced oranges on the cake itself.
Thanks so much! Hoping I can make this well for my mom as she loves the Middle Eastern orange cake but I love the decoration of this one 🙂
You can always add some spice. Freshly ground cardamom is delicious in this too. Approx 1 teaspoon.
Hi, just wondering how high does the cake rise as I am considering doubling the ingredients. Thanks
Hi Manjit, I certainly wouldn’t recommend using a 20cm cake tin as if you’re planning on doubling the recipe. If you have a tin measuring 23 or 24cm then I think it would work. Also the baking time would be longer. Hope that helps.
This recipe sounds really good, but I have a question. 1 blood orange is boiled and cut up into little bits, which are mixed into the batter. Should it be pureed first, or supposed to be chunky?
The 2nd orange is to be juiced, for adding to the caramel. Then it says to pour the orange caramel over the sliced orange. What sliced orange, and where is it supposed to be?
Is the juiced orange supposed to be cut into slices, even though there is practically nothing left of it? Slice a 3rd orange to line the bottom, and get covered by caramel? Can the caramel be at the bottom with no slices?
Hi Cheryl,
Let me explain: there is a total of 4 blood oranges in this recipe. First off you slice 2 (see step 1 to place in the tin. The 3rd orange is boiled until very soft, then chopped VERY FINELY (step 2). The 4th orange is juiced to make the caramel (step 3). I hope this helps
All the best
Louise
For the orange that is boiled, do you include the rind or just the inner flesh? Can’t wait to make this!
Include the rind and the flesh Chris.
Really pleased to hear it, it’s a very popular bake here!
Just made this cake. Can I freeze half?
Hi Jackie, yes you can, it will deteriorate a little but it’ll still be good.
Hi – is the cake best eaten the day it is made or is it better kept (as some cakes where you boil the fruit first seem to be better the next day.)?
Hi Ingrid, it does indeed improve the next day.
Hi – is the cake best eaten the day it is made or is it better kept (as some cakes where you boil the fruit first seem to be better the next day.)?
So sorry for the late reply. It’s good on the day and yes better the day after.
Hi Louise! This looks so good – can I sub ground almond for almond flour?
Hi there,
Happy you like the look of this bake. Yes sure you can.