"blood" orange scented olive oil cake.

As I was perusing through the grocery store today I was delighted to see blood oranges in the produce section. A sucker for anything blood orange I decided to buy some to use for an olive oil cake. These blood oranges even had "product of Italy" stickers on them so obviously I assumed they were going to be awesome.

However, it was a sad, sad disappointment when I sliced one open and saw no "blood" colored insides. I cut into the next one and the next one and finally the last one and NONE of them had any red coloring. I think I was scammed and I'm not happy about it.

Luckily, the cake was still delicious. It was wonderfully fragrant, moist and very quick to make (no mixer required). It did not have a strong olive oil flavor, if you are looking for a more prominent taste use pure olive oil.

If anyone finds some nice bloody oranges please let me know where!

orange scented olive oil cake

by Nick Malgieri: The Modern Baker

3 oranges (the recipes uses navel)

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups olive oil

1 1/2 cups milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9-inch round pans and set aside. Zest oranges in a large bowl. Add eggs to the zest and whisk together. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until the mixture is light, about 1 minute. Whisk in olive oil, followed by the milk. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the olive oil mixture in three parts. Once combined pour into the prepared 9-inch pans. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

If you have actual blood oranges serving this cake with a blood orange meringue or blood orange mousse would be amazing. We had to settle for whipped cream. wonk wonk.