Blood Orange Curd: A Redux - Curd, Raspberry & Citrus Sponge Non-Birthday Cake

Following on from last weeks post on Blood Orange Curd, I am being terribly lazy this week, but I promise you it will be worth it.

This past week was the lovely Caroline Mead's birthday, of which we are not allowed to mention or celebrate...oops, sorry babe! In honor of this, I decided to bake a cake. A special cake. A Non-Birthday Cake.

Ingredients Cake
Grated zest 1 blood orange (or lemon)

1 tablespoon blood orange juice (or lemon)
175 grams self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
175 grams butter at room temperature
175 grams caster sugar
3 large eggs


Ingredients Icing
2-3 cups of icing sugar, sifted (depends on how sweet you want it to be)
Blood orange juice (or lemon)
A few tablespoons of Blood Orange Curd

For the cake: Dump everything into the bowl of your mixer (or food processor, or bowl if you have a death wish to burn lots of calories by beating by hand!) and mix on high until you have a nice smooth batter. Divide the mixture between two sponge tins and bake for approx 25-35 mins or until cooked and it springs back lightly to the touch.

Ahhh now the hard bit. Allow to cool in the tins for about 10 mins, then turn out of wire racks to cool. Cool completely. These puppies need to be cold, so you have to be patient. Best case - make them the day before and forget about them to the next morning (its what I did!)

For the icing:  Sift the sugar into a bowl, and the juice and some of the curd and mix until you get a nice runny (but not too runny) consistency.

To assemble: Lay one layer of the cake on a serving plate, splatter on good splodge of the blood orange curd and spread out evenly so it is nice and thick and oozy, then cover with a punnet of raspberries. Next lay on the next layer - yes, you will get squidgy bits coming out the sides - and that is a good thing! Its oozy and decadent and tangy and good. Pour the icing over the top layer and again, let it drizzle down the sides and puddle and stream....decorate with another punnet of raspberries and put in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up.

We had lovely slabs of this citrus delight this afternoon, while watching an episode of Market Kitchen that I filmed a few months ago....I didn't look like a total jackass, which is a good thing, and I marvel at how much my hair has grown the last few months.

Oh yeah the cake - you wont need cream with this - it is moist and tangy and tart and fresh. You could use any curd with this cake - lemon, lime, tangerine....you are only limited by the seasons and your imagination. ENJOY!

Based on a recipe by the delightful Delia (with a few tweaks for good measure).

Blood Orange Curd

Having to stay at home this weekend due to the Hussybands little snip yesterday, I find myself with the time and inclination to play with a few recipes.

Orange and lemons the bell of St Clemens......

In my box from Riverford this week, I added a bag of Blood Oranges. The blood orange is a kind of orange with a deep scarlet hue on the inside. The skin pigment on the outside is also darker. They usually mature mid-season and are deeply juicy and sweet flavoured. These kinds of oranges are typically smaller than an average orange.

Some people believe that blood oranges are a result of cross-breeding between pomegranates and oranges, but this is a total and utter falsehood. Blood oranges are simply oranges that at some point underwent a genetic mutation (like Godzilla) and turned into the noble, sexy fruits that they are today.

Rather than use an existing recipe, I decided to play with my Nan's Lemon Curd Recipe, replacing most of the lemon juice with blood orange juice, I say most, as blood orange juice is sweeter than lemon I wanted to leave some in, so I have used the juice of 1 lime and 1 lemon together with the blood orange juice to make up a total of 2/3 of a cup of liquid.

It is also important to have your eggs at room temperature before incorporating them into the sugar/butter/lemon mix so that the eggs do not curdle. There is nothing worse than curdled curd!

Ingredients
180g butter
3/4C caster sugar
2/3C juice (I used 1 lemon, 1 lime and the rest blood orange), strained
3 eggs

• Place the butter, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved.
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the eggs. Stir over low heat continuously for 8-10 mins or until thickened. It will also thicken up further upon chilling so dont worry if it seems a bit water-y!
• Place in sterilized jars and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 2 cups

I had expected it to come out much redder, like the juice, and the photo doesn't quite to it justice, as it has a lovely pink hue to it. Taste-wise, it is sweet and tart and crying out to be eaten straight away.

You can do so much with this - I love it slathered on sourdough toast, but you could also serve it as a desert canapés in small (or large) sweet pastry tart shells. I am going to use this to fill a sponge with next week, and will top it with a blood orange and sugar drizzle and serve it to @CarolineMead as her non-birthday cake....I hope she likes it! Meanwhile, I have to use restraint and not eat it by the spoonful!

Enjoy!