How to make a blood orange drizzle cake

During their brief winter appearance, swap normal oranges for their garnet-coloured cousins to give your baking a warm glow, says Julia Platt Leonard

Get ’em while they’re hot: Blood oranges bring a different – and welcomed – colour to winter cooking (Photography by Julia Platt Leonard

Oranges are lovely but blood oranges are in a league of their own. Nothing compares to slicing one in half and seeing the crimson flesh and the drops of blood orange juice.

They’re all the more treasured because blood oranges make the briefest of appearances during the winter, then they’re gone again for another year.

It’s as if nature knows we’re desperate for a spot of colour and kindly obliges.

A glass of freshly squeezed blood orange juice feels indulgent but it’s worth any of amount of guilt.

Segment blood oranges and serve them on salads, making sure to capture any juice to add back into the vinaigrette.

Or use them instead of regular oranges or lemons in baking. The garnet-coloured juice adds a warm glow to your cake and the juice – with a bit of added sugar – is lovely to drizzle onto the finished cake.

The cold nights make blood oranges all the better this time of year so take advantage of them while they’re at they’re best.

Blood orange drizzle cake

200g caster sugar
100ml vegetable oil
zest of one blood orange
60ml blood orange juice
170ml kefir
2 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
300g plain flour
1 tbsp poppy seeds

Glaze

60ml blood orange juice
50g sugar
Whipped cream, to serve, optional

Preheat oven to 175°. One 2 lb loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm / 9 x 5 inches)

For the cake, mix together the sugar, oil, orange zest and juice in a bowl or jug. In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the kefir and the eggs. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the salt, baking powder, and plain flour. Stir in the poppy seeds. Pour half the sugar and oil mixture into the dry ingredients, and fold in gently. Repeat with half the kefir and egg mixture. Then finish off by folding in the rest of the sugar and oil mixture and lastly the kefir and egg.

Grease the loaf tin with butter and then dust with flour. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes or so, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove the pan and place it on a cooling rack and let it sit for five minutes. Meanwhile, make the glaze by combining the blood orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the sugar is melted and the glaze warm. Alternatively, you can heat the sugar and juice in a bowl in the microwave for about 30-50 seconds.

Remove the cake from the pan. Take a wooden or metal skewer and insert holes in the cake. Drizzle some of the glaze over the cake. Any leftover glaze can be served separately. Top slices with lightly whipped cream if you desire.

@juliapleonard