Note: Blood orange season is pretty short and not every grocery store will carry them. Not to worry if you can't find blood oranges, you can substitute with regular or Mardarin oranges. But, if you are lucky enough to find blood oranges in the market, grab a few bags. Use the first bag to make this cake and the second bag to freeze the zest and juice so you can use the zest and juice well beyond the cold winter months. Enjoy!
Blood Orange Upside Down Cake
Simple Syrup1 cup blood orange juice
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1 cup sugar
Place blood orange juice and cinnamon sticks in a small saucepan and heat until reduced by half. Add sugar and heat on low until sugar is completely dissolved and thickened about 4-5 minutes. Let cool and reserve cinnamon sticks. Strain syrup in a fine mesh strainer to remove fruit pulp. Return cinnamon sticks to strained syrup and set aside. (Photo note: I added star anise the first time I made this, but preferred not to include it in the next few attempts, unfortunately I did not take new pics without the star anise)
Cake Batter
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
3 t milk
zest of 3 oranges
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
6-8 small blood oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare simple syrup as directed above.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and milk and beat until incorporated. Add orange zest. Add flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Spray a 8" cake pan with cooking spray and then line the bottom of the pan with an 8" parchment paper circle, taking care to smooth out the parchment to remove all bubbles underneath the parchment.
Add blood orange syrup and cinnamon sticks to the parchment lined cake pan. Next, layer blood orange slices over the syrup and cinnamon sticks.
Then, pour cake batter over the orange slices and smooth over the top with a rubber spatula to level the batter. The batter will be thick.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. At 20 minutes, place a piece of foil sprayed with cooking spray over the top of the cake, to prevent over browning. Let bake the remaining 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10-15 minutes.
Run a knife around the edge of the pan and then place a serving plate over the cake pan. Flip the pan and plate over together to remove the upside down cake from the cake pan. Serve warm with a side of ice cream or all by itself. Enjoy!
Other dessert recipes to try:
Orange Cornmeal Cake |
Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes |
Rustic Apple Torta
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