Healthy Treats | Blood Orange Almond Cake!

2020 is here and with it, the cold and flu season!

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Living in tropical weather doesn’t make us exempt from catching colds and that is just what has happened in the Bird nest! I guess two old Birds taking the red-eye flight home wasn’t the best idea!

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Now the task is to eat well and get back in tip-top shape! With a quick trip to the market I was armed with loads of fresh fruits and vegetables packed with Vitamin C! Back in the kitchen I grabbed a few of my favorite oranges. With a quick peel and slice I was ready to bake.

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Blood Oranges!

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Aren’t they beautiful? This lovely member of the Orange family hails from Italy and that beautiful purple/red center is due to anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are believed to have anti-inflammatory properties and help prevent bacterial infection. So not only does this beautiful fruit contain vitamin C, it also helps fight infection!

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Seeing the beautiful fruit spurred memories of upside down cakes! I’ll never forget one of my first camping trips as a young Girl Scout. Making an orange cake over the campfire was so exiting. It was pure torture waiting for the cake to bake in the hot coals. Needless to say our Girl Scout cake came from a box mix, but I still remember the delicious orange flavor. I thought I could certainly do a little better than that today! You be the judge!

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Blood Orange Almond Cake

• Almond Flour (1/2 cup)
• Gluten Free Flour (1 cup)
• Baking Powder (1 ½ tsp)
• Sea Salt (1/2 tsp)
• Orange zest (2 tbsp.)
• Dairy Free butter (2 tbsp.)
• Lemon Juice (2 tbsp.)
• Blood Oranges (qty 2)
• Coconut Palm Sugar (2 tbsp.)
• Fresh Eggs (qty 2)
• Coconut Yogurt (1/2 cup)
• Maple Syrup (1/4 cup)
• Vanilla (1 tsp.)

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Zest from the orange…

adds such a nice flavor dimension to the cake. I used 2 tablespoons but you could add more if you wish. Side note… at this point oranges were mysteriously disappearing from under my nose.

Melting the butter and combining…

the cane sugar and lemon juice were stirred in. This cake should be made using a cast iron skillet. Unfortunately I gave my cast iron to my children when we moved. Today I got creative and used a spring form pan. Not optimal!! Lining bottom of the spring form pan with parchment I snuggled the sweet orange slices covering the bottom of the pan following with the butter topping. Blood oranges are not as acidic as most so they’ll taste wonderful in a cake.

The rest is pretty straightforward…

dry ingredients mixed together first, followed by wet ingredients. Finally I chopped the remaining orange slices and added those to the batter.

Gently spoon the batter…

over the orange slices and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Check with a toothpick to make certain it’s done. Look at that golden color!

Letting it cool…

just a bit was tough. Mr. Bird kept mentioning his need for more Vitamin C as he flew in and out of the kitchen.

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Because I didn’t use cast iron I decided to place the cake back into the oven for few minutes. This definitely helped give it an overall golden appeal. The pan you bake with really does make a difference. The cake was tasty anyway, reminiscent of my campfire days! (Minus the tiny flecks of soot and such, lol)

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We'll be taking it easy over the next few days, lots of water, vitamin C and sunshine for the Birds. Staying out of the kitchen is tough for this bird so I'll be around. Thanks for stopping in today,

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And as always, blessings to you all!

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