blood orange and chocolate marble cake

blood orange and chocolate marble cake

• 6 Nov 2023

I know it's been a while since I posted a recipe but I've barely been in Sydney since I returned from my trip. Behind the scenes, I've made quite a few marble cakes, looking for the perfect recipe. Each version has been an improvement on the one before, but I hadn't really found a 'winner'.

When I returned from my overseas trip I found 3 small blood oranges in my fridge. Now I do not like to waste anything so I wondered if I could incorporate blood oranges into the marble cake recipe. This iteration is an adaptation of the  Neapolitan Pound Cake recipe from Sweet but I made it a blood orange version. Rather than pink coloured cake, I flavoured the cake with blood orange rind and some pureed blood orange marmalade. 

The cake didn't scream orange so I added just a few drops of red food colouring to boost the colour and then the icing was coloured and flavoured by the addition of some blood orange juice. For decoration I used some of the dried blood orange slices I made last year for Christmas but they're really not necessary.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a large bundt cake and it is adapted from Sweet by Ottolenghi and Helen Goh Cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Blood orange and chocolate marble cake adapted from Sweet
Ingredients

1 and 1/2 tbs blood orange marmalade 
75ml milk at room temperature
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
165g self-raising flour
85g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
¼ tsp salt
250g caster sugar
250g unsalted butter, soft but not oily, diced, plus extra for greasing
25ml boiling water 
2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 tsp grated blood orange rind
A drop or two of red food colouring

For the icing
15g unsalted butter, softened 
150g icing sugar, sifted
20-30 mls blood orange juice 
pinch salt

To decorate (optional)
Dried blood orange slices

Method
Heat the oven to 180⁰C, conventional. Grease and flour a 23cm bundt tin and place in the fridge until needed.

In a small food processor blitz the marmalade to form a puree. You may need 1-2 tsp of water to loosen the mixture. Set aside.

For the cake, put the milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a medium bowl and whisk lightly, just to combine. Sift the flours and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place, then add the sugar and mix on a low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and half the egg mixture then mix until well incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat for one minute. 

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, making sure the first batch is fully incorporated before adding the second. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again, then divide the batter equally between three small bowls. You should have about 330g of batter in each bowl.

Place the hot water in a small bowl with the cocoa powder. Stir to make a smooth and very thick paste, then mix into one of the bowls of cake batter. To the second bowl of cake batter, add the orange puree, the orange rind and tint with the food colouring, adding a drop or two at a time until it’s the colour you want. Leave the third bowl of batter as it is.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin in six alternate blocks, two of each colour, then use a skewer or knife to make one zigzag-shaped swirl through the mix, to create a marble effect (don’t be tempted to overdo the swirling, or you’ll lose the marbling).

Place on the centre rack of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, then remove and set aside for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before icing.

For the icing, combine the icing sugar, softened butter and salt in a small bowl. Add enough of the orange juice to make a thick but pourable icing. Spoon over the cooled cake, so the icing drips unevenly down the sides. Leave to set for a few minutes, and serve. If you like, you can top the cake with some dehydrated blood orange slices.

I shared this cake with the twins and they were so-so about it (I suspect they'd have preferred it if it was coloured pink) but it was a hit with the adults. This is a very nice cake and it's definitely the best version of the 3 marble cakes I've made to date, as orange and chocolate are a natural pairing.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian