Glazed Blood Orange and Lavender Loaf
blood oranges, lavender
Update Jan 10th 2021
This citrus packed blood orange and lavender loaf cake topped with a beautiful blood orange glaze is how I’m celebrating citrus season. Who doesn’t love a classic citrus loaf with that extra special citrus punch of flavour both in the cake and in the glaze? I’m always drawn to citrus based desserts. I love tangy and tart things both sweet and savoury. They have a way of exciting the tastebuds like nothing else and I love it
I have been thinking of making a blood orange glaze since I made my lemon ricotta waffles but we opted for just maple syrup. But I have been bit obsessed with the gorgeous color of the blood oranges and had to make a glaze for something and that is why I decided to make a tasty blood orange loaf with them. I took a classic lemon loaf recipe and used blood oranges instead. The recipe is originally from Chatelaine. I adapted it according to what I had on hand.
The recipe is really simple and can be made with a bowl, whisk or wooden spoon. It’s made with yoghurt which you could sub out for sour cream or even butter milk. It’s also an oil based loaf/ cake and I usually use a neutral vegetable oil in this one but you can use whatever vegetable oil you might have like canola, coconut or for a more intensely flavoured cake - olive oil. When it comes to the citrus you can use whatever you have - this would be lovely as a lemon or orange loaf as well. There is a bit of squeezing and a bit of zesting involved in making this blood orange cake but it’s worth the effort and I just love the smell of fresh citrus being zested in the air. Just inhale and enjoy the lovely aroma as you zest and squeeze those oranges.
I’m keeping this brief as there’s nothing really more to be said about this loaf other than it’s fabulous, simple and such a classic recipe which you can make as I mentioned with any citrus you have available. I added the lavender because lavender goes so well with citrus flavours. Lavender’s sweet, fragrant flavor complements a range of foods, both sweet and savory and I love it with citrus. It’s not overpowering in the recipe. In fact if you wanted it to be more prominent you can add a touch more to the recipe. I think a little goes a long way though. The hint of it is enough to add another dimension of flavour to this loaf.
We really enjoyed shooting this loaf for obvious reasons. The glaze is just the prettiest hue of pink and the light was so nice that day so we could not have had a better day to shoot this little beauty. I only had a slice and the rest was eaten and enjoyed by the rest of the family and some friends that were over after we shot it. It was loved by all and I know you would enjoy it too. It will def make it to your favorites list for sure!
Recipe
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp blood orange zest
- 1 tsp of edible (food grade) lavender buds chopped as fine as possible plus more for garnish
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- ⅔ cup coconut oil or you can use canola
- ⅓ cup Greek yoghurt
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup blood orange juice, strained
For the glaze
- 1½ cups icing sugar, sifted
- 3 tbsp blood orange juice strained
- Food grade lavender buds for garnish
Directions
For the loaf
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9 × 5-in. loaf pan with oil, or line with parchment paper
- Place the sugar, blood orange zest and lavender in a large bowl and run it between your fingers to release the natural oils and infuse the sugar. Whisk in flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- Whisk the eggs, oil, yoghurt and vanilla in a medium bowl.
- Stir into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in blood orange juice.
- Pour into pan and bake until a tester inserted into centre of loaf comes out clean, 60 to 70 min.
For the glaze
- Whisk icing sugar and blood orange juice in a small.
- Remove and reserve ¼ cup of the glaze. Stir 1 tbsp water into it to thin it out. Brush over hot loaf then allow loaf to cool for 10 min in pan.
- Remove from pan and place on cooling rack.Brush the rest of the loaf with thinned out glaze and let cool completely.
- Pour over or drizzle on the remaining glaze, allow to set a few min then slice and serve.
- Cover and store leftover cake for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
- Feel free to make extra glaze if you like your cake to have lots of glaze on it. Any extra can be reserved and used on other baked goods.
- Substitutions: You can use any vegetable oil in this cake including olive oil if you want a richer tasting cake. You can use buttermilk or sour cream as a substitute for the Greek yoghurt if you wish. If you don’t like lavender feel free to substitute it with rosemary to add some herbal flavour or leave out the herbs completely for a more traditional citrus loaf. You can add a couple tablespoons of poppy seeds to the batter to make it a citrus poppy seed loaf too, and finally, if you don’t have blood oranges or you don’t like them, you can substitute them for any other citrus - lemon, oranges, or grapefruit would all be wonderful.
Adapted from Chatelaine
