Blood orange season is fleeting, and this year I nearly missed it entirely thanks to my near obsessive avoidance of supermarkets. But thankfully I managed to get my grubby paws* on a few just in time.
* My ‘paws’ are, in fact, supremely (WHO-approved) clean
Now, when it comes to delicious citrus, my mind immediately goes to dense (and dare I say it… moist) almond cake. So to make the most of the beauty that is blood orange, I whipped up some rich almond, coconut and blood orange cupcakes, with a blood orange and cream cheese frosting.
And yes, they were bloody delicious, so I would recommend grabbing your face mask, some hand sanitiser and heading down to your nearest store to pick up a few blood oranges to make yourself a few too…
Add these ingredients to your shopping list:
Note: This mixture makes 12 small cupcakes so depending on how many people you’re locked down with… or how many cupcakes you think you can eat in a sitting… you may want to halve the mixture. They do last pretty well in an airtight container for about 3-4 days though too…
- 100g butter (melted)
- 90g almond flour
- 110g caster sugar
- 30g desiccated coconut
- 2 eggs
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp vanilla paste
- 2 blood oranges (both zested, 1 juiced)
- 100g cream cheese
- 200g icing sugar
Now, let’s get baking:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C
- Melt the butter and set aside to cool (this is important so it doesn’t start to cook the eggs when you add them together in a moment…)
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sugar and coconut (you can use a standing mixer for this if you prefer)
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla, then add the cooled butter and the zest and juice of 1 blood orange
- Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well to form a loose batter
- Pour into a 12-cupcake silicone tray (or you can grease a tin cupcake tray, or line it with cupcake papers if you prefer)
- Bake for 20-25 minutes (the cupcakes should be beautifully golden)
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack (the sponge breaks quite easily when it’s still warm so it’s much easier to remove the cupcakes from the mould when cooled
- In the meantime, whip together the cream cheese, icing sugar and zest of 1 blood orange
- When the cupcakes are cooled, pipe on the icing or just spoon dollops on each one depending on your aesthetic preference (you can also use the flesh of the remaining zested orange to decorate your cupcakes if that’s your bag…)
The Caketonian 