Blood Orange Bundt Cake

It’s blood orange season and a perfect time to make this delicious blood orange bundt cake.

This cake is a great dessert to serve to guests. The citrus flavor is bright and refreshing and the buttery blood orange glaze makes a tasty topping that is also beautiful to look at.

I based this recipe on one from the Tutti Dolci blog, making a couple of minor changes. One change was to substitute Fiori di Sicilia for the original almond extract. It’s a delicious recipe and the dessert blog is worth exploring.

Fiori di Sicilia is an extract-like blend of citrus and vanilla flavors. It smells wonderful. It’s quite strong, so a little goes a long way. I’ve bought mine from King Arthur Baking Company. If you don’t have Fiori di Sicilia, almond extract will be delicious.

I also used whole milk instead of low-fat milk.

Tips

Bring your butter, eggs, and buttermilk to room temperature before assembling the ingredients.
Be sure to use aluminum-free baking powder, so that it doesn’t react with the citrus and cause discoloration. I found Rumford aluminum-free baking powder at my local grocery store.
The more elaborate the design of your bundt pan, the more chances for the pan to not be thoroughly greased. Be sure to grease every crevice of your pan, so that the cake doesn’t stick to the pan when you attempt to remove it. One technique is to melt butter and use a pastry brush to brush it over the inside of the pan. Then let it cool and harden.
Some people use nonstick cooking spray to grease the pan, but I’ve found that it does build up in the pan and doesn’t easily wash out.
After adding the batter to the bundt pan, the instructions say to tap the pan on the countertop to remove any air bubbles. Don’t be tentative with your tapping as I was (you can see the bubbles in my cake). Give it several hard taps.
You can make the cake a day ahead and glaze it on the day that you are going to serve it.

Equipment

Use a 10-inch bundt pan to make this cake.

Ingredients

You need the following ingredients to make this blood orange bundt cake.

Cake Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder.
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons blood orange zest
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia
1 cup buttermilk (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons blood orange juice

Glaze Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons blood orange zest
2 tablespoons blood orange juice
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350. Carefully butter the inside of your bundt pan (see tips for more info).

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

Put the sugar and blood orange zest into a food processor and pulse for a minute. Transfer it to a large mixing bowl.

Add the butter to the sugar and beat everything with a mixer on medium speed until it is pale and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to a low setting and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Blend in the vanilla and Fiori di Sicilia.

In a separate small bowl, blend the orange juice and milk together.

Add about a third of the flour mixture to the large bowl, blend it, then blend in about a third of the milk mixture. Do this two more times, blending everything until it is just incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the buttered bundt pan and smooth out the top. Tap the pan against the countertop to remove the air bubbles.

Bake the cake until it is golden and springs back when you touch it, or a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (about 35 – 45 minutes). Remove the cake from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 – 15 minutes, then carefully turn the cake over onto the rack and cool it completely.

When the cake is cool, move it onto a serving platter.

Make the glaze. In a bowl, whisk together the butter, salt, orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and wait for it to set before serving the cake. Depending on the thickness of the glaze, it will take 10 – 30 minutes to set. It doesn’t need to be hard.