Blood Orange and Olive Oil Pound Cake
I recently received two lovely food samples – olive oil and blood oranges. While I don’t always end up using samples for recipes, the combination of the two was inspiring. Particularly after coming home from Portugal, where olive oil and oranges are often used together in sweets, I knew I wanted to bake something. I decided they were destined for a pound cake.
I’ll be the first to admit that this is not my most original idea. A quick Google or Pinterest search for blood orange and olive oil cake will reveal dozens of beautiful photos. Some cakes are simple, others are glazed with a lovely pink frosting, and others have paper-thin slices of oranges baked on top. They were all so pretty that I couldn’t resist adding my own version to the mix.
This cake was a lovely surprise, gently sweet and tender. Both the orange and olive oil are subtle but the flavors are distinctly present. The pieces of blood orange interspersed throughout the cake add a pop of juicy sweetness and keep the cake moist. It’s always a sign of a good recipe when I immediately begin running through variations for next time – meyer lemon, olive oil, and rosemary? Grapefruit and star anise? This one will be a staple.
Ingredients:
- 4 blood oranges (3 for cake and one for glaze/garnish)
- 3/4 cup of sugar, plus more for candying oranges
- 1/3 cup of buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp orange oil (optional)
- 2/3 cup high quality extra-virgin olive oil
- 2/3 cup of powdered sugar