Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

Peep Blood Orange Segment (Upper Left of Photo)

It has been a long week of no coffee, bed-ridden sickness, and lots of rain. By last night, extreme exhaustion took over. I fell asleep around 10:30 pm in the depths of a rainy night storm.

So deep in sleep was I that apparently I blurred the lines between reality and dreamworld.

I get a phone call from good friend, Natasha at 11:30 pm. I answer the phone by saying "good morning" in flirtatious voice over and over and over. After Natasha retorts, "Stephanie, it's 11:30 at night! Go back to sleep!" I reply "ok, see you in 4 hours." Natasha and I had no plans to meet up at 3 am. I was indeed sleep talking. I was hypnotic. Woken from the depths of my extreme slumber.

And there you have it. Apparently I sleep talk sometimes.

This morning I decided that I needed to get some good strong caffeine in my body. I did just that, and then I baked a cake. Ah, I'm back in business, back to being me. I made a beautiful cake. This beautiful cake has beautiful blood oranges and olive oil in it.


I got to supreme and segment some lovely bloods (see recipe below for definitions/instructions).


I juiced one of the oranges and mixed it with some plain yogurt to get a pretty pink mixture.


I mixed up the batter and folded in the blood orange segments.

Beautiful. Moist. The taste is all in the name, blood orange with hints of olive oil. Perfect.

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

makes one loaf pan

From SmittenKitchen

Butter for greasing pan
3 blood oranges
1 cup (200 grams or 7 ounces) sugar
Scant 1/2 cup (118 ml) buttermilk or plain yogurt I used non-fat yogurt
3 large eggs
2/3 cup (156 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups (219 grams or 7 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Honey-blood orange compote, for serving (optional, below)
Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Grate zest from 2 oranges and place in a bowl with sugar. Using your fingers, rub ingredients together until orange zest is evenly distributed in sugar.

Supreme an orange: Cut off bottom and top so fruit is exposed and orange can stand upright on a cutting board. Cut away peel and pith, following curve of fruit with your knife. Cut orange segments out of their connective membranes and let them fall into a bowl. Repeat with another orange. Break up segments with your fingers to about 1/4-inch pieces.

Halve remaining orange and squeeze juice into a measuring cup; you’ll will have about 1/4 cup. Add buttermilk or yogurt to juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether. Pour mixture into bowl with sugar and whisk well. Whisk in eggs and olive oil.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently stir dry ingredients into wet ones. Fold in pieces of orange segments. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up. Serve with whipped cream and honey-blood orange compote (below), if desired.

Honey-Blood Orange Compote: Supreme 3 more blood oranges according to directions above. Drizzle in 1 to 2 teaspoons honey. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir gently.