In the kitchen with Elisa
Blood Orange Coconut Cake
A soft coconut sponge cake with a naturally colored blood orange icing
Oh, Blood Orange, you are so beautiful!
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When it comes to food trends, I am always interested. Sometimes it is not my thing, but sometimes I find new fruits, vegetables, spices or something else, that I have not tried before and that blow my mind away. That is exactly what happened with my first encounter with blood oranges.
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I have recently seen so many photos on Instagram with blood oranges that I had to look for some in the local shops. I was curious, whether they really are as red as on the photos or are all of those people using photoshop. I am a foodblogger myself, and yes I do edit my photos, but I think this editing has gone a bit too far in some cases. And so I found some blood oranges at our little corner shop,brougth them home and was standing in my kitchen, full of excitement waiting to cut into that blood orange. The vibrant red juice that started pouring from the blood orange while I was cutting it, caught my eye immediately and with excitement I turned the cut halfs around and was surprised by an amazingly red color. Maybe it is just me, and maybe I am weird that way, but there are some colors that amaze me when they are the natural color of a fruit or a vegetable. It is just so amazing to me how nature has produced something so beautiful.
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I hope I will not bore you with this long story, but I really want to share my thoughts and I hope it will also inspire you to try new things :) When it comes to the taste of the blood orange, I think it is much sweeter and it doesn´t or it didn´t taste as orange to me. But it was definitely delicious and so worth the money spent (as they are a bit pricier than the regular oranges)! What I also noticed, but what I don´t know for sure is that the blood oranges that were just as regular oranges with orange skin were not as dark on the inside as the ones that had some red coloring on their skin. Is this a coincidence or is this real?
This blood orange coconut cake is my first recipe using blood orange, but it will definitely not be the last one. Now that blood oranges are in season, I will try to add as many recipes as I can :)
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I hope you will like this sweet coconut sponge cake soaked in a vibrant red blood orange syrup and covered with a sweet blood orange icing.
I will stop writing now and make myself a tea to go with my slice of cake :)
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Happy Baking darlings!
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Step by Step Video
RECIPE
Blood Orange Coconut Cake
A soft coconut sponge cake with a naturally colored blood orange icing
​INGREDIENTS
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3 eggs (medium)
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150g sugar
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50g coconut oil (melted)
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300g plain Greek yogurt (10% fat)
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200g flour
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1,5tsp baking powder
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50g shredded coconut
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100ml blood orange juice (freshly pressed)
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50g sugar
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100g icing sugar
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blood orange juice as needed
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DIRECTIONS
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First you want to prepare the syrup which you will need later for soaking the cake. For that you need 100 ml of freshly pressed blood orange juice and 50g of sugar. Combine the blood orange juice and the sugar in a small pot and heat over medium heat (do not boil) just until the sugar has melted. This should take only 3-5 minutes. Then remove from heat and leave aside to cool.
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For the coconut sponge cake, whisk eggs and 150g sugar in a medium bowl with a hand mixer for about 5 minutes until pale. The mix is ready when you draw an eight on top and it stays for a couple of seconds. (See video)
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Then add coconut oil and yogurt and mix just until combined.
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Combine flour and baking powder and sift into the wet ingredients. Then add the shredded coconut and fold in with a spatula until a smooth batter forms.
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Cover an 18cm or 20cm cake tin with parchment paper and butter it well with coconut oil. I used an 18cm cake tin to get a taller cake, but I think 20cm might be better as you get the syrup over a larger area in this case.
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Transfer the batter into the cake tin, even out the top and bake the cake in the middle shelf of the oven in 180°C bottom top heat for 60-70 minutes for 18cm cake and 35-45 minutes for 20cm cake. If the cake starts to get too brown from the top you can cover it with parchment paper to ensure it doesn´t burn.
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Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then pierce the cake thoroughly with a wooden skewer and start brushing it with the blood orange syrup. (See video) If you notice that the syrup is not soaking into the cake just leave it to soak for a couple of minutes and only then continue to brush it with the syrup. Once you have used up all of the syrup leave the cake to cool completely.
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Once the cake has cooled completely, remove it from the cake tin and place it on the serving plate.
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To prepare the icing, press some more blood orange juice and start adding it one teaspoon at a time to the icing sugar and mixing in between. Add only as much blood orange juice as needed to get a thick but pourable consistency. (See video) If you have added too much juice and the icing gets too runny you can add some more icing sugar to make it thick again.
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Cover the top of the cake with the blood orange icing and some fresh blood orange slices. Use fresh fruit to decorate only if you are going to serve the cake right away. Otherwise you should candy the blood orange slices before using them for decoration.
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