BLOOD ORANGE WALNUT LOAF

a moist cake is such a flex

Moro blood oranges, from Sicily, via Natoora

There is something about a blood orange that just blows my mind. The colour of the flesh and the juice is just SO beautiful, that every year, when they come into season, I am forced to stop and wonder at nature. It’s just insane to me how beautiful they are. And that’s before I’ve even tasted one. January can be a bleak month for many reasons, but one of my favourite things about the start of the year is that it’s citrus season. At my last job, we would always get a huge delivery of citrus in from Sicily that would be slowly turned into marmalade, curd and other preserves over the following weeks. It’s a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel, and we should make the most of the season while it lasts.

This week’s recipe is a simple, easy, loaf cake. I feel it’s important to always have something like this up your sleeve, that you know you can whip up easily, with few ingredients and that will be reliably delicious every time. This cake is based on a Nigella Lawson recipe for a round clementine and almond cake, which she based on a Claudia Roden recipe, which I have adapted into this loaf. I suppose this goes to show that all good recipes come from somewhere, they get passed down, adapted and become different good recipes that then are passed along again. I think it’s important to credit your inspiration, and Nigella is firmly mine, thank you Nigella!

I hope you enjoy this cake, it’s damp, full of flavour, both dairy free and gluten free - she’s got it all! -0And if you don’t have blood oranges but another citrus, perhaps even another nut, try adapting this into your own version using what you have! I would love to hear how it goes.

Sending love, Rosie x

if you have oranges leftover, squeeze the juice and enjoy!

BLOOD ORANGE WALNUT LOAF

As I said in the introduction, you can use any nut or citrus in this loaf, I have used ground almonds before, like Nigella does, and also a mix of nuts from my pantry. Ground nuts can be expensive, especially almonds, so my top tip is to buy them flaked, whole, or what ever is cheaper, and grind them yourself in a high speed blender. That’s what I have done with the walnuts here and it works a treat. If you choose to change the citrus, perhaps to something sharper like lemons or limes, you may want to up the sugar slightly to account for varying levels of acidity. The only time consuming part of this recipe is the boiling of the oranges, but this can be done days ahead and also sped up using the microwave if necessary, if using the microwave, cook for 7-10 minutes in a container with a whole for steam to escape. They are done when a knife slips easily through the whole fruit.

For the cake:

3 x blood oranges (roughly 375g)

295g walnuts, blended into a flour like consistency

300g caster sugar

6 eggs

For the icing:

400g icing sugar, sieved

Juice of one blood orange

Method:

1. Boil the oranges for 2 hours, drain and set aside to cool slightly.

2. Preheat the oven to 170c, line and grease a loaf tin.

3. Blend the whole boiled oranges into a smooth pulp.

4. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, walnuts and orange pulp, until you have a smooth cake batter.

5. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for an hour.

6. Check the cake after 40 minutes and if you think it’s in danger of browning too much, loosely foil the tin for the last 20 minutes.

7. The cake is done with a skewer inserted comes out clean.

8. To make the icing, simply whisk together the icing sugar and blood orange juice, adding more juice or sugar to reach your desired consistency. I like the icing quite thick so it doesn’t all run off the cake, but a few drips down the sides are nice.

9. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin and then pour over the icing.

10. This cake lasts SO well, easily up to a week, so it’s a great one to make a day in advance if you are planning ahead.

the colour of this icing!