Recipe: Blood Orange Pound Cake

This is the nuanced, next-level cake to bake for your next tea time… or any time, really. With brown butter and blood orange, the simple recipe takes pound cake to a new level. Enjoy it with a cup of tea while the cold weather is getting you down, letting the citrus remind you of the warmer days to come. And if you can’t find these ruby red beauties at your local market, regular oranges will do just fine!

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup brown butter, room temp, melts to 1 ¼ cup
• 1 ½ cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 blood oranges
• ½ cup + 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk

Preparation

Brown butter:

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir occasionally and continue heating until milk solids separate and butter turns a golden brown colour. This will take about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool until butter comes back up to room temperature and returns to a solid form. You can also transfer brown butter into a shallow bowl and  put in the fridge until butter returns to a solid, about 1 hour. This can be made a couple of days ahead of time and can to stored in the fridge.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 9 ½ x 5 ½ inch loaf tin and line with parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, salt and zest of 1 blood orange.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat brown butter and ½ cup of both brown and white sugars together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time beating well after each one, then add the juice of your zested blood orange, mix until combined.

Next, over low speed or with a wooden spoon slowly add flour mixture to wet batter and mix until just combined.

Pour into a prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool at room temperature for 20-30 minutes and prepare blood oranges for brulée.

Blood orange brulée:

To prepare your blood orange rounds, use a pairing or boning knife and slice a bit of the top and bottom off of the orange, about a ½ cm. Place the flat bottom of the orange down on the cutting board and with your knife slowly cut, following the curve of the orange so that the skin and the pith are removed.

Slice blood orange into ½ cm thick rounds and place on top of cake, making sure to cover the top of the cake completely with oranges. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp sugar and broil in oven for another 3-5 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Let cool for 15-20 mins. To remove from pan, lift using parchment paper edges and place onto a cooling rack for an additional 10 minutes to cool completely. Slice and serve with tea and clotted cream.