Blood Orange Pound Cake made with aromatic fresh basil and topped with a blood orange rum icing is soft, buttery, fragrant and easy to make.
I am in love with this Basil Blood Orange Pound Cake that I made over the weekend. I can’t even tell you how much I love it! Starting with that gorgeous, deep pink color and those beautiful, tiny, green basil specs thru the cake. This Blood Orange Pound Cake is pure bliss.
When I look at this Blood Orange Pound Cake, I just want to eat the whole thing again and again and again. I am a huge fan of blood oranges, I have been stalking my local grocery store to get my hands on some for a while! FINALLY, on Friday night I spotted a few and I couldn’t contain my excitement. I didn’t even care that they cost an arm and a leg, but seriously, why blood oranges are so freaking expensive?!
A Blood Orange Pound Cake was on my to do list for a while and since I LOVE basil so much I just wanted to combine these two amazing flavors! I am so happy I went with the Basil Blood Orange combo as its truly fabulous: fresh, citrusy, tropical and sweet. The basil flavor is not overpowering, but enough to notice its fragrant presence. Fresh blood orange zest is added to the batter and in every slice you can see tiny green and orange specs, so adorable.
The Basil Blood Orange Pound Cake is covered in a Rum Blood Orange Icing, yes I went there and added RUM to the icing and it was the best decision ever. Obviously, you can leave the rum out, totally up to you, but as equally delicious.
So easy to make, so aromatic, soft, buttery and not overly sweet, with beautiful fresh flavors, this pretty Basil Blood Orange Pound Cake is a must try!
Basil Blood Orange Pound Cake
Recipe Type: Pound Cake
Cuisine: American
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 loaf
Blood Orange Pound Cake made with aromatic fresh basil and topped with a blood orange rum icing is soft, buttery, fragrant and easy to make.
Ingredients
- Pound Cake:
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 – 3 tablespoons blood orange zest
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup light cream
- 1/4 cup fresh blood orange juice
- 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped *see notes
- Icing:
- 2 tablespoons fresh blood orange juice
- 1 tablespoon Rum
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Grease a 9 inch x 5 inch loaf pan with butter or spray with baking spray, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat together butter, sugar and blood orange zest until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Make sure to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- On low-medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time until fully blended.
- On low-medium speed, mix in 1/2 of the flour mixture until just combined. Mix in the light cream, blood orange juice and basil until just combined. Mix in the remaining flour until just combined, making sure to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the pound cake. Start checking the cake after 50 minutes of baking.
- Remove from oven and let the pound cake cool for about 20 minutes, after which run a knife thru the sides of the pan, and gently remove the pound cake from the pan. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- When the pound cake is completely cool, make the icing. In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until fully combined and smooth. Spoon the icing over the pound cake.
- Optional: decorate with fresh basil leaves and blood orange slices.
Notes
The 1 tablespoon of rum in the icing can be substituted with 1 tablespoon of blood orange juice for a non alcoholic icing.[br]If you choose to decorate the cake with fresh blood orange slices, the cake must be served and consumed the same day as the next day the blood orange slices will look dull.[br]For a more prominent basil flavor use 1/2 cup of fresh copped basil – highly recommended.
I am just going to pray here that I find more blood oranges this week since I have only two left, I desperately need to make this pound cake again and also a blood orange mojito!
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