Happy new year you guys. First post of the year, I wish I could say 2021 will be a half decent year but doesn’t seem like it tho! Anyway Citrus season is here, lets get baking with some of the finest winter citrus.
I don’t know about you guys, but for me blood oranges literally only remind me of Dexter haha. Blood orange and Honey Liqueur cake, we ordered a Rye and a honey liqueur from a Burwood Distillery. They are a local Canadian Distillery (totally not sponsored, just absolutely delicious!).
Blood Orange & Honey Liqueur Cake:
- Blood orange and poppy seed layer cakes ( 3x 6″ cakes) : soft fluffy blood orange juice infused and mixed with poppy seeds to add an extra depth of flavor.
- The filling is Blood orange curd: Blood orange curd is as simple as the lemon curd recipe. This blood orange curd is silky, luscious and an absolute delight. You can always swap it for any other citrus curd. Check out some other citrus curd like mandarin curd
- Honey liqueur buttercream frosting: Honey liqueur from a local distillery, it is just perfect in this recipe. It gives you a sweet yet slighty boozy flavour.
If you don’t have access to honey liqueur, not an issue at all. Just simply substitute it with honey and a dash of whiskey, bourbon.
I used americolour peach, copper, moss green and apricot food colours to get the painted watercolour effect.
Blood orange & Honey Liqueur cake
Blood orange and poppy seed layer, blood orange curd filling and honey liqueur buttercream frosting
Ingredients
Blood orange Curd
- 100 ml Blood Orange Juice (a little less than ½ cup)
- 4 L Egg Yolks
- 150 gm Granulated sugar - 50gm or 1/4 cup ¾ cup
- 115 gm Salted Butter (Chilled + cubed) 1 Stick
- 2 tsp Blood orange zest
Blood Orange and poppy seed layer cake (3 x 6")
- 115 gm Salted Butter 1 stick
- 85 gm Canola oil ⅔ cup
- 200 gm Granulated Sugar 1 cup
- 4 L Eggs
- 125 gm Greek yogurt ½ cup
- 240 gm All purpose Flour 2 cups
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp Blood orange zest
- 125 ml Blood orange juice ½ cup
- 1½ tbsp Black Poppy seed
Honey Liqueur Buttercream Frosting
- 200 gm Salted Butter 1¾ stick butter
- 2 tbsp Honey Liqueur (substitute with 2 tsp honey and 2 tsp whiskey)
- 315 gm Icing sugar 2 ½ cup (add tbsp or 2 more if runny, if too think add a tbsp of cream/ milk)
- Food colouring for watercolour effect
Instructions
Blood orange Curd
Add all ingredients in a metal or a glass bowl. On a pan with simmering water, place the bowl with the ingredients and whisk slowly.
Keep whisking gently until the curd starts to thicken. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water.
Once the curd starts to thicken, remove from heat. Strain it to remove any blood orange zest or egg white bits that may have been slightly cooked in case the water was too hot or the bowl touched the water.
Store it in a bottle until needed for the cakes, the curd can be stored in the refrigerator for upto 3 weeks.
Blood Orange and poppy seed layer cake (3 x 6")
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. grease and line the cake tins with parchment.
In a bowl, fitted a paddle attachment on a stand mixer or you can just use whisk/ spatula and a bowl. Add and cream the butter, oil, sugar and the blood orange zest.
Add and beat one egg at a time. Add the yogurt and mix together.
Sift the all purpose flour and baking powder and mix on low speed. Add the blood orange juice as it mixes. Do not over mix the batter.
Fold in the poppy seeds into the batter. Make sure the ingredients are all incorporated.
Divide the batter into 3 pans and bake for about 20 minutes. Once baked, take it out of the oven and cool it on cooling racks.
Honey Liqueur Buttercream Frosting
In a bowl, fitted a paddle attachment on a stand mixer. Cream the butter, add the icing sugar in small batches and whisk.
Add the honey liqueur and add the remaining icing sugar. Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Until the buttercream is light and smooth.
Divide the buttercream into various little bowls, add the colouring as desired. (this step is totally optional) You can also just use one colour for the entire cake. I used 60% of it for peach colour thats the base crumb coat and the filling. The rest i add patches and use a cake scraper to get the effect.
Assembly
On a cake board, cake plate. Add a dollop of frosting, place a layer of the cake.
Add a thin layer of frosting on the cake, Pipe a buttercream "dam" around the edges of the cake layer.
Fill the dam with blood orange curd (dont overfill it). Repeat for the other layer.
Place the top layer, facing bottom up. This gives it a flat top.
Give the cake a very light crumb coat, chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Apply a coat of buttercream and add the patches of coloured buttercream. Place the cake on a turn table and using a cake scraper, scrape the colours around. This gives you a painted effect. It wont be perfect but you can add patches of colours here and there and scrape again. Dont over do it! Imperfection is beauty...
I also added all the leftover colours into a piping bag with a star tip to give it a multi colour effect for the piped design.
Chill for an hour or so before serving so the cake and the curd can set.
Recipe Notes
Don't be greedy like me and overfill the cake with blood orange curd. Keep the extra curd, you can always spoon on extra curd on your slice 😉
Happy Baking
xx