It’s no secret that I adore blood oranges. In fact, this is now my fifth cake recipe featuring these blushing beauties!

I’m forever dreaming up new ways to incorporate them into my cooking/baking.

This particular recipe celebrates the marriage of the classic combo. Chocolate and orange. In fact – it’s like terry’s chocolate orange in cake format, just, I dunno, elevated.

Think: moist orange zest infused sponge, randomly studded with dark and white chocolate pockets, topped with moreish whipped mascarpone cream and finished off with beautiful candied orange segments.

❤

The perfect little pop of colour a drab February day needs.

Stunning and delicious!

Enjoy,
– Kay
Ingredients
Cake
- 200g caster sugar
- 110g salted butter
- 2 medium eggs
- Zest of 2 blood oranges
- 165g flour
- 0.5tsp baking soda
- 120ml buttermilk
- Juice of half a blood orange
Frosting
- 50g icing sugar
- 50g mascarpone
- 400ml double cream
Candied blood oranges
- 1 blood orange, thinly sliced
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180, grease and line your small loaf tin.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well between each addition.
- Add the orange zest, mixing once again.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, mix well.
- Add a third of the flour mix to the sugar and butter mixture, mix to combine, before adding half of the buttermilk.
- Repeat this process until all your ingredients have been added. Don’t over mix!
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 45mins – 50mins or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Once done brush over with the blood orange juice and set aside on a wire rack to cool.
Frosting
- Add all the ingredients to a large bowl. Whisk until the mixture holds and is just thick enough to pipe – avoid over whisking as the cream will curdle! [Do this just before you’re ready to decorate!]
Candied Blood Oranges
- Add the sugar and water to a heavy bottomed frying pan. Heat on medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Add the sliced blood oranges in a single layer. If they overlap slightly, this is fine as they’ll shrink a little once they start cooking.
- Leave to simmer gently for 45-60 minutes turning over occasionally throughout.
- Once done, remove and leave on a wire rack to cool then cut each slice into halves.
Assembly
- Once the cake has cooled, use a piping bag and round ended tip to create lines of frosting, zigzagging back and forth.
- Top randomly with pieces of candied blood orange.

