Sweet & Simple Citrus Cake is a delightfully sweet treat made with the season’s best fruit.
Colorful citrus still fills the shelves of our local market. It’s the first thing you see when you turn the corner into the produce aisle: pink and white grapefruit, navel oranges, blood oranges, and (my personal favorite) clementines. The naturally bright colors are always a source of inspiration for me. As far as I am concerned, sweet and juicy citrus fruits are one of the few things good about the winter months; I will be sad to see them disappear with the cold.
Before we say goodbye to juicy oranges for another year, I decided to forage for the perfect mix of gorgeously colored fruits in the market and bring them home to Keith to inspire a unique citrus recipe. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by what I got. Sweet & Simple Citrus Cake is what he made, and it turned out to be quite a treat.
Keith told me stories about how much his parents loved Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and how his mother made it every year for his father’s birthday. He thought that using citrus fruit instead of pineapple would be a modern take on this classic family tradition.
I loved this idea instantly, and I loved the finished product even more. This Sweet & Simple Citrus Cake was incredibly moist and delicious. The oranges provided the color and sweetness that I was looking for, and it looked simply stunning on the plate. Who knew that my citrus shopping spree would turn into such a sweet masterpiece?
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A sweet and soft batter cake that resembles a traditional pineapple upside down cake yet takes it to the modern level we all love.
Ingredients
- Fot the topping:
- 1/4 C butter
- 1/4 C white granulated sugar
- 1/4 C orange juice
- 1 tsp almond extract
- For the cake:
- 2–3 citrus fruit (we used navel oranges and blood oranges)
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 3/4 C sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 1/3 C all purpose flour
- 1/2 C milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Lightly grease a 9″ round cake pan.
- To make the topping, melt the butter in a sauté pan and mix with the orange juice and almond extract and heat until clear (about 5-6 minutes over medium heat), stirring constantly.
- Pour mixture into pan and make sure the entire pan is coated.
- Peel and slice oranges into 1/4 slices and arrange the oranges in the bottom of the pan, making sure the bottom of pan is covered. Oranges can overlap each other.
- To make the batter: beat the butter and sugar until fairly smooth.
- Beat in the egg, salt, baking powder, vanilla and vanilla and almond extracts.
- Add flour and milk a little at a time while alternating them. End with the flour and mix just until smooth.
- Pour the batter over the oranges and smooth to make even in the pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to set 3 minutes. Turn cake over onto a plate.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
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