Rosie Makes: Blood Orange Drizzle Loaf

There are few cakes more satisfying than a traditional drizzle cake – essentially a cake soaked in syrup. The lemon drizzle cake is up there in my favourite bakes, and so, with a few blood oranges in the fruit bowl, I thought I’d try my hand at converting a classic with seasonal blood orange. This blood orange drizzle loaf is a cross between an upside down cake and a drizzle cake; a moist, orange flecked sponge topped with fresh, slightly caramelised fruit, and covered with a zesty blood orange drizzle. To make it, you will need:

120g butter
120g caster sugar
2 eggs
95g self-raising flour
25g ground almonds
Two blood orange
100g extra caster sugar, for the drizzle.

1) Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 160C Fan.

2) Beat the butter, sugar and the zest of one orange together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in one at a time with a little flour, then fold in the rest of the flour.

3) Add the ground almonds and fold in. The batter will be quite stiff.

4) Chop one orange into rounds – as thinly as you can – and chop the skin and pith away with a sharp knife. Place in the bottom of a lined loaf tin.

5) Pour the batter into the prepared tin and gently level the top, then bake for 50 minutes or so, until golden, risen and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for tin minutes, then turn out, upside down, onto a wire rack so that the orange pieces are visible.

6) Mix the caster sugar with the zest and juice of one whole orange. Poke holes in the top of the cake with a skewer and pour the drizzle over the top a little at a time, waiting for it to absorb between additions. Leave to cool completely.

Serve in slices with a cuppa. The cake tastes even better after a couple of days because the drizzle keeps it so moist and continues to seep through the sponge.

What are you baking this weekend?

Recipe by me.