I’ve been eying this recipe from Joy the Baker for months. Something about it is just drool inducing, and even for someone who doesn’t bake… well it looks very feasible.
Here’s the problem. Whenever I have lemons, they always find other uses. I use them in tea, or making sauce for chicken, or fish. Apparently, I need to find a way to get my hands on many more lemons.
What I did have on hand were blood oranges.
Not the same tangy ZING as lemons, but they lent a sweet citrus note to the cake, and a pretty pink color.
I followed her recipe to the letter. First, I sifted together 2 2/3 c flour, 2 1/2 t baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Then, I rubbed the zest from two blood oranges into 2 1/3 c sugar. This was fun, and smelled lovely.
I blended in 6 eggs, 1 1/2 t vanilla extract and 2/3 c heavy cream.
I then carefully added the dry ingredients in a few additions before adding 15 T of melted, cooled butter, also in a couple of additions.
The batter is thick and creamy, best to thoroughly butter and flour the loaf pans:
Bake at 350 for 55 to 60 minutes.
Now the simple syrup: melt 1/4 c sugar into 1/3 c water. Boil, and add the juice from two blood oranges. This syrup is brushed into the finished loaves after they are pricked all over. The idea is that the syrup will soak into the loaves:
What I found was that the loaves became somewhat mushy on top because of the syrup. After a day or so, this texture was not very pleasant. The cake is very dense (delicious with tea) and absolutely beautiful when it first comes out of the oven. I would have preferred a blood orange glaze or icing drizzled on top instead of the syrup “drench.” Next time!