Table|Spoon Baking Co.

Blood Orange Pound Cake

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It is February in Minnesota – which means it is cold, the weather is gloomy, and the snow has long since lost its appeal. Luckily for us, there is a bright side – it is the height of citrus season! One of my favorite types of citrus is blood oranges. They are sweet, bright, and absolutely beautiful to work with. The perfect accent to buttery pound cake.

This recipe has 3 separate parts to it, but don’t let that intimidate you! I promise this recipe comes together quickly and doesn’t disappoint! The best part? If you aren’t a fan of blood oranges you can use any kind of citrus you’d like!

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We’ll start by sifting together the flour, baking powder, and salt. This ensures that there are no stray clumps in the dry ingredients, and sifted flour is easier to mix into other ingredients than unsifted flour. Set the bowl of dry ingredients aside for later.

Using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, we are going to cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes or so. Next, you are going to add in the zest of 2 blood oranges, and 1/4 cup of the juice. [A quick word about zesting citrus: zest is, in my opinion, the best way to get a ton of flavor into a recipe without messing it up by adding too much juice/liquid. I prefer to use a tool called a Microplane when zesting. It is basically a sharper, smaller version of a grater, and works the best for fine/small zest pieces. When you are zesting you just want to use the colorful outside part of the peel – this is the rind. If you zest down too far you will reach the spongey white part called the pith. You don’t want that part as it can be bitter.]

Okay, so we’ve creamed together the sugar and butter, and we’ve mixed in the zest and juice. A really important step is to take a rubber or silicone spatula and scrape down the bowl. We want to make sure that everything is getting mixed together well, and nothing is stuck to the sides or bottom of the bowl. Once the bowl has been scraped down we can add our egg and vanilla extract. After the egg and vanilla have mixed in we can add half of the dry ingredient mixture from earlier. Give it a little mix and then add half of the buttermilk. Mix it a little, and then add the remaining dry ingredients, and the remaining buttermilk. Alternating and adding a bit at a time helps ensure that we won’t overmix the batter. Finish mixing until the batter has just come together. Now it’s ready to go in the oven!

While the pound cake is baking we will work on our next project: Blood Orange Simple Syrup. Simple syrup is equal parts water and sugar that have been heated until the sugar is dissolved completely. All we need to do is place half a cup of water and half a cup of sugar in a small pot bringing it to a low simmer. While that is beginning to simmer, slice one blood orange into rounds and place the slices in the simmering water/sugar. Now we let that simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it – if the heat is too high it will boil down and burn. After 15 minutes, carefully remove the used slices of blood orange and discard them. Set aside the bright pink simple syrup and allow it to cool. [This will make a bit more syrup than we need for the pound cake. It will keep well in a sealed container in your fridge for 1 – 2 weeks. I LOVE using this leftover simple syrup in homemade margaritas!]

Our last thing to make is the glaze, and it couldn’t be easier! I like to wait to make this once the pound cake is out of the oven and cool. If the glaze goes on while the cake is still hot it will melt right off. All we are going to do is take a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and then whisk in a little blood orange juice at a time until we get to the consistency we are looking for. We want the glaze to be loose enough that it will drizzle, but not so loose that it will just run right off the pound cake. A good consistency to aim for is like thick maple syrup.

Once your pound cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. After that you can remove it from your pan and place it on a cooling rack. Using a pastry brush, brush a layer of the simple syrup all over the outside of your pound cake loaf. This will help keep the pound cake from drying out, and adds additional blood orange flavor!

Now all that is left to do is allow the pound cake to cool completely, top with a drizzling of the glaze, brew some fresh coffee and enjoy!

Recipe

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Blood Orange Pound Cake

  • Author: tablespoonbakingblog
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 – 55 minutes
  • Total Time: 22 minute
  • Yield: 1 Loaf 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Pound Cake
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

For the Pound Cake Batter

  • 1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 tsp. Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 1/3 cup Butter – room temperature
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • Finely grated Zest of 2 Blood Oranges
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 cup Blood Orange Juice
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 1/2 cup Buttermilk

For the Simple Syrup

  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 1 Blood Orange – cut into rounds

For the Glaze

  • 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
  • Juice of Blood Orange

Instructions

For the Pound Cake Batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pan.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Cream together the butter, sugar and zest, until light and fluffy.
  4. Add the egg, vanilla, and juice. It will look separated when you mix in the juice. Don’t worry, it comes together just fine when you add the dry ingredients.
  5. With a rubber or silicone spatula, scrape down the bowl well to make sure you get all the butter mixed in.
  6. Add the dry ingredients you sifted earlier, and the buttermilk.
  7. Mix until just combined – being careful not to over-mix.
  8. Pour batter into your prepared loaf pan, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Rotate the pan, and bake for an additional 25 minutes. You are looking for the cake to be golden brown and for a knife or toothpick to come out clean if inserted into the center of the cake.
  9. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan.

For the Simple Syrup

  1. In a small pot, bring 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a low boil.
  2. Add the sliced up blood orange and lower heat to a simmer.
  3. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
  4. Cool and remove the used blood orange slices.
  5. Once you remove the pound cake from the loaf pan, use a pastry brush to brush a layer of simple syrup all over the outside of the pound cake.
  6. Leftover simple syrup can be saved in an airtight container in your fridge for 2 weeks.

For the Glaze

  1. Whisk together the powdered sugar and a little bit of the blood orange juice.
  2. You want to only add a little of the juice at a time until you get to the consistency you are looking for. I like to aim for a consistency like thick maple syrup.
  3. Once your pound cake is completely cooled you can drizzle the glaze over the top.

Keywords: Pound Cake, Cake, Citrus, Blood Orange, Glaze

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