Blood Orange Layer Cake
Whenever I have a few spare hours, usually on Sundays if I can break away from my usual chores & routing house cleaning, I love to dive in & make a cake. But like a really good cake - one that’s layered with yummy fillings and frosting, hits all the right notes for my tastebuds, making it hard to have just one piece, & decently iced so it meets my specs to be a truly cute cake. The therapeutic measuring of ingredients & whisking everything together, the satisfaction of taste testing sweet batter, the concentrated frosting that takes patience, a calm hand, & focus, & the satisfying step of garnishing the completed product. It’s become my favorite way to spend an afternoon, though I’m careful to not spend too many afternoons devoted to it. One completed cake + two people in this house + zero will-power….recipe for extreme cake consumption, which I fully support occasional but my body would eternally hate me if this was part of the regular routine. Nonetheless, it’s a fun treat we like to dive into when an at-home treat is deemed necessary.
My kind of cake is one that’s really fruit forward. A soft & fluffy white cake filled with homemade jam or a tangy curd, all held together by soft buttercream. Sign. Me. Up. I’ve felt the pressure to try and go all in on a go to blood orange cake lately. What can I say - it’s a favorite winter flavor for me & the bags of blood oranges at Trader Joe’s have been calling my name. Gotta do something fun with them before their season ends. I just love the sweet, citrus flavor that pack, their rich color, and the fact that cutting into each one is a surprise of color & pattern. It’s a really pretty fruit that helps make homemade meals, cocktails, & desserts a whole lot prettier, too. My husbands company also make a Blood Orange cider, and since Incline has truly become our life blood, I’ve made a larger effort to re-purpose it outside of the pint glass more recently. My experimenting led to this Blood Orange Layer Cake, & it’s so good I’ve made it twice this season, & both times not a crumb was left behind.
Moist, orange-y, & perfectly sweet. Those are things that sweep over your palette when eating just the cake thanks to Incline’s Blood Orange Cider (I use about 1/2 cider + 1/2 almond milk as my liquefiers) & a whole lot of orange zest. My theory, which is totally just my own brain trying to explain why this cake is good, is that the carbonation of the cider only aids in creating this airy, fluffy texture. I’m not like the biggest fan of cake by itself - like I need the fillings and topping and sauces for it to be worth it for me. But this cake is very enjoyable all on its own. When I was leveling out the layers, cutting off the domed tops so they sat evenly, we didn’t let one bite of those scraps go to waste. They were very enjoyed “testers” by me and my husband. The only thing I can equate it to is a light, orange flavored coffee cake kind of situation, and it’s really damn good.
It’s cake, so it’s sweet, and it’s iced with buttercream, which is also really sweet. I use a super sharp lemon curd (it’s Martha’s recipe just slightly altered) to cut the sweetness, and that tangy layer only helps make this one fruit forward bake. Perks of lemon curd - it’s super simple to make (almost fool proof) & it’s really sturdy. Some of my cakes kind of go awry when the middle layer, whether it’s a fruit filling or a mousse or icing, is too runny and sort of seeps out the sides. It just screws up that clean, dirty iced look I really like. But lemon curd kind of holds it own. Spreading a fairly thin layer of curd between each cake layer is plenty to impart that sharp lemon flavor without providing much opportunity for seepage.
My no. 1 recommendation - use fresh lemon juice. Cannot stress the value in this strep. The concentrated stuff in the bottle is pretty tempting, but my experimenting left me feeling like it kind of imparted this tin-like flavor which I didn’t love so much. Totally worth the time spent juicing a few freshies, & getting your hands a little sticky in the process.
The color of the blood orange is why it’s so pretty, and part of the draw in making a blood orange cake was getting some of that orangey-pink color in the cake. So fast forward to the frosting & garnish - it’s like a missed opportunity to not use fresh blood orange juice to really set it over the top. I used my go to frosting recipe (2 c. butter + 4 c. powdered sugar + 3-4 tbsp milk + 1 tsp vanilla), and subbed all the liquid for fresh blood orange juice. That dainty pink color that you get - I die. It’s like this happy, Spring-y cake full of winter flavors, & that slightly girlish pink color is just too cute.
I my experimenting, I felt like another contrast of color was needed, and that sliced or candied orange on top wasn’t gonna fit the bill. Queue the blood orange icing, and we’ve got a super sweet, orange concentrated glaze that’s much deeper in color & banging on that soft pink frosting. I love the the drips down the side of a dirty iced cake. It looks like something you want to eat, but like intentionally eat. I’m talking sit down, plate it up, maybe even have a glass of champs near by to wash it down, and soak in that fact that it’s almost too pretty to eat while really enjoying each sweet & citrusy forkful. Truly amazing and will do extra Peloton rides to indulge in a large slice of this beauty.
Food is a total pick-me-up at our house. It doesn’t mean that we binge eat or eat things like this cake to soothe emotions. But for us, and for me especially, time in our kitchen is really welcomed and really cherished. I love the solo time I get to spend diving in, focusing on nothing but the bake, and the time spent with Jordan sitting in his chosen corner of the kitchen, watching, helping, offering words of encouragement, or just dipping his finger into the frosting bowl for a taste test. There’s a special, happy, and kind of intangible mood that’s set when cake making is set in motion. Like it’s this always happy occasion and instant pick me up. & I can’t help but think that some of our best moments these days are we end the day sharing a piece of cake.
For the Cakes
2 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 c. canola oil
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
zest of 2 blood oranges
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. almond milk
1/2 c. Incline Blood Orange Cider
For the Lemon Curd
1 c. sugar
zest of 1 lemon
8 egg yolks
3/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter
For the Buttercream
2 lb powdered sugar
2 c. butter
3 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
2-3 tbsp fresh blood orange juice
For the Blood Orange Glaze
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
juice of 1 blood orange
pinch of salt
1 blood orange, sliced into 1/4 in. thick disks
Preheat an oven to 350. Butter & flour 3 round (9-inch) baking pans, then line the bottom of each baking pan with parchment.
Start by mixing together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil and sugars, whisking for about 2 minutes by hand. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the sour cream, whisking until the batter is well mixed and not streaky. Add in the dry ingredients, about a cup at a time. After adding in half of the dry ingredients, add in the almond milk. Add the remainder of dry ingredients, and then whisk in the cider last. Separate the batter evenly amongst the 3 pans. Bake in the oven for 25-27 minutes. They should be totally cooked through. When they’ve finished baking, let the cakes cool in their pan (outside of the oven) for an hour, then remove the cake from the pan by running a knife along the sides of the pan & turning them over gently, pealing off the parchment paper. Let the cakes continue to cool until they’re completely cool to the touch.
Move to making the curd. Whisk the egg yolks & sugar in a sauce pan until they’re fulling incorporated. Whisk in the lemon juice. Place the saucepan over medium heat & add in the butter. Whisk constantly until the butter has melted. You want the curd to bubble around the edges. Whisk over heat for at least 7 minutes - the curd should be plenty thick and the consistency should allow the curd to coat the back of a spoon. Turn of the heat and cool for 30 minutes. Transfer to a bowl or mason jar, and then in the fridge until totally chilled.
Now time for buttercream. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until creamed together and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add in the liquids, and beat on medium to medium-high for another 2 minutes. Remember - fluffy is what you want.
To assemble the cake:
Cut the raised domes off of the cake layers so you have a flat surface.
Spread a thin layer of curd over one cake layer, leaving about a 1/2 inch around the edge of the cake. Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the top, spreading the buttercream to the very edge of the cake.
Place the second layer of the cake right on top
Repeat step 2 and place the 3rd and final layer on top
Proceed to dirty ice the cake, and chill in the fridge
Optional: Spread another layer of frosting over the dirty iced cake after it has chilled to totally cover the cakes edges. I left mine with that kind of naked cake look.
As the cake cools, whisk together all components for the glaze until its totally smooth. Poor the glaze right over the top of the cake, and top with orange spheres.