This Blood Orange Pound Cake has a moist and tender crumb and a gorgeous pink glaze thanks to some fresh squeezed blood orange juice!
Blood oranges have finally arrived in the stores here. Along with Cara Cara oranges, kumquats, tangerines, clementines and all the rest. I can’t wait till after the holidays to start playing with them, here’s a sneak preview.
What are blood oranges?
Blood oranges are a Mediterranean variety of orange with a deep blush colored flesh that comes from pigments called anthocyanins ~ theyโre the same antioxidant compounds that color blueberries and black rice. Anthocyanins are also responsible for the red and purple colors in fall foliage.
Blood oranges have a distinctive berry like flavor and when you squeeze them the juice is an absolutely gorgeous color. You can use the juice in dressings, sauces, and and drinks, both alcoholic and not.
There are a few different types of blood orange, Tarocco, Moro and Sanguinello. Slice open a blood orange and the flesh can be anything from rosy to almost black, depending on where theyโre grown and the specific growing conditions.
From the outside, blood oranges look a lot like regular oranges, so read the signs and keep your eyes peeled for them in your produce section.
You’ll notice I use orange extract in this recipe. I’ve come to really appreciate citrus extracts like lemon and orange. They’re all natural, and they smell just like fresh juice. I love how they bump up the citrus flavor in cakes, etc., where you can’t add enough fresh juice to create strong flavor without upsetting the delicate liquid to flour ratio. Make sure to get pure orange extract, not artificial flavoring.
Could blood oranges be more gorgeous?
The sun was filtering through the curtains by the time the cake came out of the oven.
Blood oranges vary in terms of how ‘bloody’ their color is. The pretty pink of this glaze is due only to the juice of the orange, no coloring was added.
Make yourself a beautiful glass of BLOOD ORANGEADE to go with your blood orange pound cake!
more pound cakes!
- Maple Pecan Pound Cake
- Triple Coconut Pound Cake
- Perfect Buttermilk Pound Cake
- Triple Vanilla Pound Cake
- Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake
Blood Orange Pound Cake
Ingredients
dry ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
wet ingredients
- 1/8 cup blood orange juice
- 3/8 cup buttermilk
- zest of 3 oranges
- 1/2 tsp orange extract
- 1/2 tsp vanilla paste, or extract
- 1 stick, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
glaze
- 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- blood orange juice to thin
- 1/4 tsp orange extract, optional
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
- Measure the orange juice in a glass measuring cup and then fill to the 1/2 cup mark with buttermilk. Add the zest, extract and vanilla paste. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs.
- Alternately add the dry ingredients along with the wet, to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry. Don’t over mix.
- Turn batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan. I lined the pan with a piece of parchment paper to make it easier for me to lift it out.
- Bake for about 55 minutes to an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out to a rack.
- When the cake is mostly cooled, glaze with the Blood Orange Glaze.
- To make the glaze, mix the sugar with enough of the juice to create a nice glaze consistency. Add in the extract, if using. Spread or drizzle on the cooled cake. If your glaze is too thin, you will lose a lot of it to ‘run off’. I like to make it on the thick side and spread it with a knife or spreader.
Fantastic!!!! I had a piece of blood orange pound cake at a cafe last week and loved it! Thought I’d try to make my own to use with a chocolate fondue. Looked around and decided to try this one. The recipe was easy enough. I didn’t have buttermilk, but made some with milk and lemon juice. The concoction with buttermilk, blood orange juice, zest, and vanilla paste looked – honestly – like vomit. But I went with it. And voila!
The cake is INCREDIBLY moist and filled with flavor. The top baked to a beautiful and crispy golden brown (the crisp thanks to the buttermilk and sugars), and the it was loved by all – on its own or dipped in chocolate. I didn’t make the glaze, and the cake was perfect without it.
I wish you would list the baking-recipes in grams. I’ve tried some of the baking recipes on your blog, and they failed, and I think its because cup-measurements can be so unprecise. – I say this because I really love your recipes & blog
I know Anna, I’m trying to add them on my newer recipes, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. There are automatic converters, but I don’t trust them. We’re actually working on a conversion page for the blog that will serve as a reference, sorry for the inconvenience!
Hi Sue, I love your recipes. I’m making this next week. Did you use an 8×4 or 9×5 loaf pan? Do you recall how many slices you got? Thanks.
This was made in a standard 9×5 pan.
So appreciate your reply, thanks. That’s what I’ll use.
Suzie here again! I made the cake using regular oranges cause that’s what I had. Came out great! Two things: definitely use 8×4″ pan – I could see the batter was not enough for 9×5″ and used the smaller pan. Also, is it typical for a loaf cake to be higher in the center than the sides? I felt the slices from the sides were not quite as big as the ones in the middle. Just love your recipes!