These vibrantly coloured fairy cakes really do taste as good as they look. Blood Oranges or Sanguinelli are usually only available during the winter months. They are slightly sweeter than normal oranges. The juice has a delicate orange flavour with a slight twist of lemon and is the most gorgeous shade of rouge pink.
Blood Orange Fairy Cakes
20th February 2021
Preheat the oven to 150 C, 325 F or Gas Mark 3
Persons
10
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Total Time
35 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 Blood Oranges
- 2 tsp Granulated Sugar
- 120g Margarine or Butter
- 120g Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 120g Self Raising Flour
- 1 Pinch of Baking Powder
- ½ tbsp Milk
for the Butter Icing
- 100g Icing Sugar
- 50g Butter (Softened)
- Zest and 2tsp juice from the first blood Orange
- 1tsp Milk.
For the Glace Icing
- 2 tbsp Blood Orange Juice
- 200g Icing Sugar
Instructions
- Individually line a muffin or fairy cake tin with paper cases.
- Using a zesting tool or vegetable peeler pare off thin strips from one of the oranges.
- Then fine zest this orange and keep the fine zest to one side to use in the buttercream icing later.
- Combine the zest strips with the granulated sugar and leave to crystalize.
- Soften the margarine or butter and cream together with the caster sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
- Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture one at a time.
- Finely zest the other orange into the flour. Fold in the flour and orange zest together with the baking powder. Gently stir the milk into the cake mixture.
- Divide the mixture between the individually lined muffin or fairy cake tins, before bake in the centre of the oven until well risen and golden coloured. Allow five minutes for the cakes to cool in the muffin or fairy cake tin before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool.
- When totally cold the fairy cakes can be finished with blood orange glace icing, buttercream and sugared zest strips.
For the Buttercream Icing
- Place all the above ingredients into a bowl and cream until light and fluffy.
For the Glace Icing
- Mix the juice into the icing sugar to form a thick paste that is not too runny. Use a little more juice if it is too thick.