Blood Orange Cardamom Pound Cake – Recipe!

I picked every last blood orange from my trees this season.  Blood oranges, unlike navel oranges, are deep red hued and fantastically striped in places.  The flavors are sweet and tangy, similar to traditional oranges, yet they taste different somehow.  I love to juice them and watch the ruby juice emerge and then add it to so many lovely recipes, like this Blood Orange Cardamom Pound Cake.

A true pound cake is a pound of butter, sugar and flour, so really this is a half pound cake because I only used half the ingredients.  I’m not opposed to making a traditional recipe, but I find that this amount of butter, sugar and flour is just enough to give delightful flavor without it getting too heavy.  The blood orange juice is both in the cake batter and in the icing, so there’s a lot of love in this recipe.  I hope you will seek out some blood oranges, if you don’t grow your own, because they are truly wonderful citrus with such a short window of time.

The lightly pinkish glaze is perfection on top of perfection because the warming cardamom spice pairs so nicely with citrus.  The flavors are slight — they won’t knock you over the head, but I think this time of year is all about that — little subtleties that need to be noticed.  I took a slice and had it with a cup of tea, but anytime is a good time for this pound cake — for me it is anyway.

Ingredients

Cake

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup blood orange juice

1 tablespoon blood orange zest

1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Icing

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoons cardamom

1/4 cup blood orange juice

2 tablespoons heavy cream

(Serves 8-10)

To Prepare:

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees.  Spray an 8-cup bundt cake with cooking spray or oil, set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt, set aside.
3. In a stand mixer or large bowl, cream together butter and sugar for 3 minutes.  Add eggs and continue to mix on high for 2 minutes.
4. Add blood orange juice and zest, mix 1 minute.  Add 1/3 of flour alternating with 1/3 of sour cream and mix on low.  Continue to repeat twice more until all is incorporated into batter.
5. Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 40-45 minutes, until lightly golden brown.  Remove to cool.
6. While cake is baking, dance a little first, then whisk together confectioner’s sugar and cardamom.  Add orange juice and cream, whisk until smooth.
7. Remove cake from pan and invert onto cake stand or platter.  Drizzle with icing.  Slice and serve or let it set in refrigerator and serve later.  Enjoy!