Almond, Blood Orange and Raspberry Cake

By Emma Hawkins | March 7, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Blood oranges are the delicious ingredient that I think is about to flood the food world and hit the mainstream. They have a very unusual flavour – sort of the classic orange taste with a fruity kick similar to strawberries in the background. This makes it a perfect partner for almonds and raspberries, which when all mixed into a cake tastes delicious! They also have an incredible natural pink colour – this icing is just blood orange juice and icing sugar, no food colouring!

Depending on the size of orange you use the mixture has the potential to end up very wet. If this happens there’s a chance the cake could take too long to cook and end up burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Therefore, if this happens, I’d recommend adding a couple more tbsp of flour to the mixture to thicken it up – it’s not really the done thing in the world of baking but it works for me. If you’re unsure if your mixture is too wet or not you can check it using the v test. Take a blob of mixture on the wooden spoon you’ve been mixing with and sharply shake the spoon once to drop the mixture off it. If the mixture hanging off the spoon is a v shape it’s ready!

Recipe

Makes 1 cake

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

250g Butter
200g Caster sugar
60g Clear honey
4 Large eggs
140g Greek Yoghurt
1 tsp Almond extract
250g Self-raising flour
100g Ground Almonds
1tsp Baking powder
200g Frozen raspberries
Zest of 3 Bood oranges
Juice of 2 Blood oranges

To decorate:

1 Blood orange
200g Icing sugar
A sprinkle of Freeze dried raspberries
25g Flaked almonds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Take a rectangular pound cake tin and line with butter and baking paper.
Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Add the honey, eggs, yoghurt, and almond extract and whisk together to combine.
Sift in the flour, ground almonds, and baking powder and whisk into the mixture until smooth.
Add the orange juice, zest and the raspberries into the mixture and fold with a spatula to combine.
Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for around 55 minutes, until it’s risen, starting to brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Take the cake out of the tin and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the icing. Cut the blood orange in half and juice one of the halves, setting the other to one side for later.
Put the icing sugar into a bowl and pour in the juice. Stir to make a smooth icing.
When the cake is completely cooled drizzle the icing over the cake. Slice the remaining 1/2 orange into chunks and arrange then on top of the cake. Finish with a sprinkle with the freeze dried raspberries and flaked almonds. Serve!