Glazed Blood Orange Loaf Cake

Do you ever get something into your head and simply cannot rest until you make it/do it?

 

I do.

 

I've been wanted to make a light, bright, fresh citrusy cake for some time now. I'm not even a particularly huge fan of citrus fruits, though I do recognize their need in my kitchen. But I was longing for an aromatic cake filled with zest and indicative of summer. It may or may not have been caused by watching Jersey Shore and longing for some of my own summery shore time. Without the spray tans and fake boobs.

 

So for my mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday, I finally went ahead and researched a good citrus cake. Of course, any time I get an idea in my head, I must consult with Ina. She's my girl for all recipes. I simply cannot make something without checking her recipe list first, if even to simply compare. And wouldn't you know, she has a recipe for lemon cake. My heart skipped a beat.

 

Instead of lemon though, I wanted to try something a bit less tart...orange, perhaps? I sent Shaun out grocery shopping on Saturday night and I didn't realize until I had started baking that he didn't pick up any old orange. I cut them open and found this.

 

After zesting and juicing, it felt like a party at Dexter's house.

 

But seriously, the blood oranges made this cake just a hint orangey, which was absolute perfection. And see that gorgeous pink glaze? It's 100% au naturale from the blood orange juice. Gorgeous, no?

 Glazed Blood Orange Loaf Cake
*Adapted from Ina Garten
For the cake:
4 blood oranges, zested & juiced
2 lemons, zested & juiced
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 eggs
3 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange & lemon juice, divided
3/4 C buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the glaze:
2 C confectioners' sugar
3 tbsp orange/lemon juice
milk (add for consistency)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Zest the fruit and set aside. You should get about 1/3 C of zest.

Now juice the fruit and set the juice aside. In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and 2 cups of granulated sugar, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time and then mix in the orange & lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In a glass measuring cup, combine 1/4 C of the fruit juice, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures to the sugar mixture, alternating a third at a time. Begin and end with the flour. Divide the batter between the 2 pans.

Cook for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and move to a wire rack, which I set over a tray to catch syrup drippings. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, mix 1/4 C of the fruit juice, 1/4 C water and 1/2 C sugar and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Prick holes all over the top of the cakes and pour the syrup over them (here's where the tray comes in handy).

Let the cakes completely cool and make the glaze.

Whisk together the confectioners' sugar and fruit juice, adding a splash of milk until it's thin enough to pour, but not too runny. Move the cakes to plates and pour the glaze over the cakes, letting it get all down the sides. Pretty.

Slice up and enjoy!

So what do you think? Have you ever worked with blood oranges? Do you like fruity desserts? And most importantly, do you watch Jersey Shore?

350 Chocolate Truffles

How is everyone on this gray Monday? (at least here in NJ it is very gray!) I took today off from work to spend some time with my sister Christine who is home from college for spring break, and who bravely had her tonsils removed on Thursday. Talk about a bummer of a break!

Anyhoo, I spent Saturday at Lindsey's parent's house out in Long Island. Next week is her engagement party so she needed some serious girl time in terms of prepping and baking for the occasion. So of course, I headed out to the island to get our DIY on!

And when I say DIY, I mean DIY. Apparently Lindsey has a case of the Rachel when it comes to taking on big projects for own engagement party. After some brainstorming, Lin decided that edible favors were the way to go, and we decided on chocolate truffles. These aren't exactly traditional truffles, but chocolate candy cups with delicious, decadent filling. After lots of deliberation, we came up with 4 varieties so each favor box would get one of each. Oh and did I mention that to make this happen, we had to make upwards of 350 truffles. Yeah.

Between Lindsey, myself, her sister Britt and 2 other bridesmaids Jenny and Julie, we managed to get 'er done after a looooong day of chocolateering. The result? Nothing short of fabulous party favors that could easily have come from Godiva herself. And all I can say is, praise Jesus (and Jenny) for a real double boiler. Oh and for Yellowtail and their affordable oversized bottles of Shiraz.

On the list were classic chocolate Oreo filled truffles...

Golden Oreo + raspberry jam truffles

Peanut butter + jelly truffles

...and s'mores truffles, garnished with crushed graham crackers.

Don't you wish you were attending this upcoming party?

This guy does...

With chocolate on our clothes (and in our pores), the chocolateering was completed by 1AM on Saturday, which left Sunday for the girls to box everything up (I had to head home before this point!), but they sent me a snapshot of the work in progress...

Considering none of us had made chocolate confections like this previously, I'd say we got 'er done without a hitch. And had a fantastic time in the process. There's nothing like a little girl time! Stay tuned for next week when I wrap up the whole shebang with finished photos and recipes if anyone is interested! So what's the last DIY project that you tackled?

Dessert Before Dinner

TGIT! Thank God it's Thursday! Am I right or am I right?

Last night I met my friend Nicole for girls night. We get together every month or so and usually go to the same place, The Dove Parlour, which we adore. You may remember my ravings about it here. Though we would pledge our allegiance to The DP, when we found out about Sweet Revenge, a beer, wine and...wait for it...cupcake bar in the Village, we just had to check it out. Since we meet directly after work, it meant wine and cupcakes for dinner!

Their happy hour special consists of a glass of wine and a cupcake for $10. Not a bad deal, considering many glasses of wine in a city bar are $10 on their own. I went with a glass of Pinot Noir and the Sweet Revenge cupcake, a peanut butter cake with chocolate ganache filling and pb frosting.

Nikki went with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a Dirty cupcake, a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate truffle.

It was a fun, tiny little place. My cupcake was not the best I've ever had, but I love this whole concept. By the time I arrived home at 9, however, my stomach was feeling like it needed something more substantial (and not completely sugar or alcohol laden). Though I'm always happy with a plate of crackers or carrots and hummus as a replacement dinner, Shaun swooped in and saved the day with one of his famous grilled cheese sandwiches! I devoured this while we caught up on Shameless from Sunday evening.

So that's how I ended up with dessert before dinner. Admittedly, this was not my healthiest night of eating (but that's what the treadmill is for, right?), but it was certainly fun :) So what about you? Do you ever eat dessert before dinner? Or, dessert instead of dinner?