Blood Orange and Rosemary Cake

I briefly showed you the cookbook M gave me for Christmas,

 

…and this past weekend I tried my first recipe from it! Holy patooties, people.

Blood Orange and Rosemary Cake.

I love tasting new combinations of foods, and citrus and herbs is one I’d never tried before. Mouthwatering. Blood Oranges just happened to be in season right now. And the colors were really pretty. And it made my house smell really good and bakery-like. And it tasted amazing. Win-win-win-win. It was a good day.

Gorgeous coloring, and so juicy!

This part smelled so good!

That beautiful pink glaze is nothing but blood orange juice and powered sugar! No food coloring!

This Katie Quinn Davies lady is one smart cookie. I highly recommend this cake, let’s call it ‘fancy cake’ (cuz it just seems like something that’d be on a pretty table at a nice party)- the flavor profile is very different from your usual dessert but it’s bound to please. Plus you look like a rockstar for making a totally complicated sounding cake (that’s not actually very difficult to make at all). Which is always pretty cool 🙂

Also, I’m going to steal M’s phrase, ‘It’s basically a health food’ because there are seven oranges in this recipe, two of which are completely blended into the cake! See? Health food.

Make this cake!!!! And eat it too 😉

~K

Blood Orange and Rosemary Cake

Ingredients:

(batter)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup superfine sugar ( *just discovered this: put regular sugar in your food processor for a minute or so and voila! superfine sugar.)

2 teaspoons Cointreau (I did substitute Gran Marnier since that’s what I had in the pantry, or rather, my friend had in her pantry)

3 large free-range eggs (again, I used regular large eggs)

1 blood orange, peeled, pith removed, and cut into segments

1 orange, peeled, pith removed, and cut into segments

3 sprigs rosemary, leaved picked

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted

(blood orange syrup)

juice of 2 blood oranges

juice of 2 oranges

1 tablespoon superfine sugar

(blood orange frosting)

juice of 1 blood orange

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions:

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease a six cup capacity bundt pan (or grease and line a 9 inch springform cake pan.

 

Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar for 10 minutes until light and creamy. And the eggs and Cointreau and combine.

Whizz the blood orange, orange and rosemary in a food processor until the rosemary leaves are finely chopped and the oranges are blended to a pulp. Add to the butter and sugar mixture and beat together on low speed until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, beating between additions, until everything is well incorporated.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, to make the blood orange syrup, place the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup had reduced by about a a third. Keep warm until the cake is ready.

Leave the cake to cool a little before transferring it to a wire rack. Place a plate underneath the rack to catch any drips, then prick the top of the cake with a skewer, spoon the warm syrup over the cake and leave it to be absorbed.

Make the frosting by combining the blood orange juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle the frosting all over the cooled cake, then chill the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.