Blood orange cake

• 3 blood oranges
• 200g caster sugar
• buttermilk or plain yogurt, about 100ml
• 3 large eggs
• 220g plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 160ml extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

1. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

2. Zest two of the oranges and add the zest to a bowl with sugar, rub it into the sugar with your fingers until it disappears into the sugar.

3. Fillet the zested oranges by cutting off top and bottom, running the knife along the sides to remove all skin and pith, then insert the knife close to the membrane to cut out the skinless segments. Place them in a bowl and divide each segment into very small pieces, ½ cm.

4. Juice the third orange (there will be about ¼ cup juice) and top it with buttermilk to get 160ml liquid. Add it to the orange sugar and mix in well. Add the eggs and whisk them in, then add the flour with the baking powder, soda and salt and whisk in until combined. Add the olive oil little by little and whisk it in. Using a spatula, fold in the orange pieces.

5. Pour the mixture into the tin – it will be very runny – and bake for 1 hour – 1 ¼ hour until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. It’s good to place the tin on a preheated baking sheet in the oven - to help it bake through from the bottom. 

6. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then unmould and cool completely on a wire rack.

7. If you’d like to ice it, beat juice of half a blood orange into 80g icing sugar until smooth. Pour over the top of the cake and spread with a palette knife.

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See also

Blood orange muffins

Orange macaroon cake