Mini Coconut Blood Orange Bundt Cakes
Happy Valentine’s day!
My husband and I don’t usually do anything for Valentine’s day, but I hardly need an excuse to whip up something pink and pretty. These little cakes are made up of rich coconut cream and a little fresh blood orange juice. You can dip hot cakes into a blood orange syrup, or reduce the syrup and drizzle it over the cakes for serving. Fresh blood orange segments, supremed, compliment the sweet cakes perfectly. And hey, they’re pretty.
Blood oranges are the perfect fruit for winter desserts. Why use strawberries (or what are labeled strawberries in February in Boston), when you can use fresh, organic, blood oranges which happen to be in season right now? You can use regular oranges for this recipe as well, but blood oranges are just so gosh darn pretty.
The gorgeous color of the segments transfers easily to the syrup–so rich and crisp, a perfect, deep pink that’s perfect for Valentine’s day, don’t you think? The color inside a blood orange ranges from standard orange to dark red, sometimes you can even find both colors within one orange. The color inside is dependent upon light, temperature and variety. They usually look like regular oranges on the outside, but sometimes you can see a red blush creeping over the rind that tips you off.
Mini Coconut Blood Orange Bundt Cakes
Makes six mini (1 Cup) bundt cakes (photo)
1 1/2 Cups Flour
3/4 Cups Sugar
2 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/3 Cup Coconut Cream*
2 Tbs Blood Orange Juice (or regular orange)
3/4 Cup Soy Milk
2 Tbs Water
1-2 tsp Vanilla Extract
*In warm weather, refrigerate a can of coconut milk until the cream floats to the top and solidifies. In cold weather, I just take it out of my pantry and it’s ready to go. Here’s a photo.
Preheat oven to 400º F. Grease a mini bundt cake pan.Whisk dry ingredients together. Whisk wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Fill each cup with 1/2 Cup of batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. See below for soaking the cakes in syrup. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Let cool under plastic wrap to keep the outsides nice and soft.
So how about that blood orange syrup?
Blood Orange Syrup
Makes about 1 Cup
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Blood Orange Juice, strained
Combine sugar and water boil until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in juice. To make a thicker syrup, boil again until the sugar begins to expand greatly in volume (230º F, thread stage) then remove from heat.
You can re-heat it if needed before decorating the plates or the cakes.
You can soak the cakes in the thin version of the syrup for a moister cake. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, poke them with a fork and pour 1/2 of the syrup evenly over the tops. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before unmolding. You can then thicken the leftover syrup for decoration.
Hope you have a sweet day!
31 comments February 13th, 2008
