Blood orange drizzle cake
Serves: 10-12
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Blood orange drizzle cake
A cake that’s as good for afternoon tea as for a pudding. The fragrant blood orange curd can be stored in a 450g jar in the fridge for 5 days – it’s delicious on toast
Serves: 10-12
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
592Kcal
Fat
33gr
Saturates
19gr
Carbs
65gr
Sugars
47gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
9gr
Salt
0.6gr
Sarah Randell
Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author of Family Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbook among others.
Sarah Randell
Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author of Family Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbook among others.
Ingredients
- 225g very soft unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
- 225g self-raising flour
- 1 rounded tsp baking powder
- 200g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- finely grated zest of 2 blood oranges
- 1 blood orange, sliced, to decorate (optional)
For the drizzle
- 75g icing sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- juice of 2 blood oranges (from above)
For the curd
- 3 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- grated zest and juice of 2 blood oranges
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 100g soft unsalted butter, diced
- 2 tsp cornflour
Step by step
Get ahead
The sponge can be frozen for up to 1 month. The assembled cake keeps for up to 5 days in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease and base-line a deep 20cm round cake tin.
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the baking powder, sugar, butter, eggs, zest and a pinch of salt. Whisk together using an electric hand whisk. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin; bake for 45 minutes until firm and springy, and a skewer comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, for the drizzle, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the caster sugar, then gradually stir in the blood orange juice. Set aside – don’t worry if there are a few tiny lumps, they will soon dissolve.
- For the curd, put the eggs and yolks into a medium saucepan and whisk for 30 seconds to combine. Add the rest of the curd ingredients and gently stir together over a low heat. As soon as the butter has melted, switch to a whisk and whisk constantly until the curd has thickened. This can take up to 10 minutes – don’t turn up the heat! Pass through a sieve into a bowl, cover and leave to cool. Chill for at least 4 hours.
- When the cake is cooked, make lots of small holes over the surface using a skewer. Spoon the drizzle over the warm cake and leave to cool in the tin.
- Loosen the cake using a cutlery knife. Remove it to a board; using a serrated knife, carefully slice it horizontally into 3 layers. Spread half of the chilled curd onto the cut surface of the bottom slice; top with the middle layer and spread the other half of the curd on top of that, then add the top layer. If not serving immediately, chill, then bring back to room temperature a couple of hours before serving. Decorate with extra orange slices, if you like.
