Blood orange & thyme cake:
You guys!!! its already February :O its crazy the speed this year is flying away already! i have been quite lazy and haven’t been working on posting a new post 😀 so here it is blood orange & thyme cake. The markets are full of varieties of citrus, i swear i have never seen so many kinds and i was very happy to find these blood oranges too. Those of you who used to watch Dexter know how the blood orange is always there in the title track and I was just happy to finally get my paws on them 😀 just like the key limes 😉
Cake:
The blood orange juice gives the cake a pretty pastel pinkish tone, and this little cake is quite perfect for valentines day dessert. You can make the filling upto a week in advance and the curd lasts in the refrigerator for upto 10 days in an airtight container.
The recipe for the Blood orange & thyme cake:
The cake is 3 layers of blood orange cake filled with blood orange curd and frosted with blood orange and thyme buttercream frosting. The subtle hint of thyme in the frosting gives the cake a fresh feel.
Blood Orange & Thyme Cake
Ingredients
Blood Orange curd
- Egg yolks -4
- Blood orange juice - 125ml or 1/2 cup
- Butter - 75 gm or 3 ounces
- Sugar - 70gm or 1/3 cup
- Blood orange zest - 2 teaspoons
Blood orange and thyme syrup
- Blood orange juice - 125ml or 1/2 cup
- Thyme - 2-3 springs
- Sugar - 50gm or 1/4 cup
- Water - 60ml or 1/4 cup
Blood Orange Cake (3 layers of 6 inch cake)
- All purpose flour - 180 gm or 11/2 cup
- Eggs - 3 large
- Butter - 150gm or 11/2 sticks or 6 ounces
- Sugar - 150gm or 3/4 cup
- Blood orange zest - 1 teaspoon
- Baking powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon
- Milk - 80ml
Blood orange & thyme buttercream frosting
- Butter - 150gm
- Blood Orange &thyme syrup - 3 tablespoons
- Icing sugar - 300-350gm depending on the consistency
- Fresh Thyme sprigs and blood orange slices for garnishing optional
Instructions
Method
Blood orange curd
- In a small bowl on a pan of simmering water, add all the ingredients.
- Whisk the ingredients consistently until all the ingredients are dissolved and incorporated.
- Keep whisking until the curd thickens.
- Take it off the heat once coats the curd thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Strain the curd and store it in a clean bottle and chill it in the refrigerator until needed.
Blood Orange & Thyme syrup
- In a small pan, add all the ingredients.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup starts to thicken.
- Chill the syrup in the refrigerator until needed.
Blood Orange Cake (3 layers of 6 inch cake)
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, grease and line the cake tins with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add and cream butter and sugar using a hand mixer or with a paddle attachment of a stand mix.
- Add and beat one egg at a time.
- Add the milk and orange zest.
- Sift the flour and baking powder and mix until completely incorporated. Divide and pour the batter into 3 tins.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, check with a wooden skewer to see if completely baked.
- Once baked, let it cool on a cooling rack.
Blood orange & thyme buttercream frosting
- In a large bowl, add the butter. Using a hand held mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until its light, pale and fluffy.
- Sift the icing sugar in batches to whisk.
- Add one batch of icing sugar and beat on low- medium speed for a minute.
- Add the blood orange syrup into the bowl and add another batch of icing sugar. Beat on low- medium speed for a couple of minutes.
- Add the last batch of icing sugar and beat again.
- Add the frosting in a piping bag, this makes it quite easier to frost.
Assembly
- Place a dollop of icing on the cake board, add a layer of cake on the cake board.
- Pipe around the edges of the cake to form a dam around.
- Fill the middle of the cake with blood orange curd that was chilled.
- Place the middle layer on the filling.
- Repeat the same with piping it around the edges and filling with blood orange curd.
- Place the top layer and give a crumb coat around using a cake scraper or a offset spatula.
- Chill in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes and give a thin layer of frosting around the cake. You can add a thicker layer of frosting if you wish.
- Garnish with fresh thyme around and on top!
- Enjoy
Happy Baking
xx
at Assembly – no7 ….. once? what
oh sorry, it was a typo!