Upside Down Blood Orange Cake

Dominic Franks shares a favourite exotic sweet treat, which combines delicious fruitiness with vibrant colours.

Something very special happens around mid-Feb and that’s blood orange season. This blood orange upside down cake perfectly celebrates the wonderful fruit.  

Their light orange flesh is speckled with deep ruby red. I love the fact that no two oranges ever look the same; sometimes you’ll have one that has just a hint of colour, the flesh and skin just blushing with a tint of burgundy, whilst others are dark, almost black with redness – and the taste, a sort of rich, sweet orange with a hint of sherbet.

This cake is a classic Middle Eastern olive oil cake with ground almonds. It has a slightly bittersweet taste and it can be an unusual flavour for some.

METHOD:
• Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin and sprinkle the base with a little brown sugar.
• Heat the water and sugar in a pan until the sugar dissolves and then layer in the blood orange slices and leave to simmer and soften for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the orange slices and place on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Return the pan to a medium heat and reduce the sugar syrup until around one-third is left in the pan. Leave to cool.
• Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
• Place the cooled orange slices into the greased tin in a single layer, overlapping them and arranging so they are in a pretty flower spiral pattern.
• To make the sponge, beat the eggs, sugar, yoghurt, oil and zest until light and fluffy. This should take roughly 5 mins in a stand mixer. Then fold in the flour and ground almonds. Carefully pour the cake batter over the orange slices in the bottom of the cake tin.
• Bake for 35-40 min, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then carefully remove from the tin and turn it over onto a cooling rack. Peel back the baking paper from the bottom and drizzle with the sugar syrup whilst the cake is still slightly warm. Leave to cool before serving.

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