February 10, 2021

Blood Orange Bundt Cake

In continuing with my love affair with bundt cakes, today’s is a special bundt cake. It took many iterations to get it right. It highlights one of my favorite seasonal flavors. It’s super soft, tender, and citrusy. This is my Blood Orange Bundt Cake, and I’m so excited to finally share the recipe.

I first started experimenting with this recipe a couple years ago. After multiple attempts and many, many recipe tweaks, this recipe that I’m sharing here is the one. I’m so excited and confident in this Blood Orange Bundt Cake recipe that I recently shared it on White Lily Flour’s Instagram story! It’s the perfect cake for this time of year—still comfortably winter, but you can feel spring coming right around the corner.

First thing’s first: blood oranges. These have a pretty short season (January through April), and I get my fill of them every year. They get their names from their deep red-purple-pink flesh on the inside, and the deep red-pink color they get on the outside as they ripen, thanks to a pigment called anthocyanin. Flavor-wise, they’re not as tangy as navel oranges, and can be more tart or even floral. They also have fewer seeds, and are easier to peel than navels!

If you don’t already have a bundt cake pan, I highly recommend Nordic Ware (not sponsored). Their products are very well made, many right here in America, and hold up over time. They also make an effort to be sustainable and environmentally friendly, which is always appreciated. Buy a bundt pan today and it’ll last your lifetime. I love my Original Bundt Pan, and my spiral Heritage Bundt Pan is really fun for special occasions.

Why you’ll love this Blood Orange Bundt Cake

It’s super soft and tender. Part of this is due to using White Lily flour, which is finer in texture than many other flours. That helps give this cake its soft, tender crumb. The other part is due to the recipe itself, and not over-mixing the batter.

The outside is just perfectly crispy. That’s one thing I love the most about bundt cakes. The pans give the cakes a beautifully golden brown outside that’s crispy in its own way. Not crispy in the same way fries or chips or chicken can be. But a soft-baked, cakey crispy.

It’s a pretty easy recipe. No fancy mixing techniques or anything required here. And you won’t spend all day on it. Really, the hardest part about making this cake is buttering and flouring your bundt cake pan (more on that below).

It’s a really unique way to feature a seasonal flavor. The floral, tart, citrus notes of the blood oranges come through perfectly. The cake itself isn’t super sweet, letting those blood orange flavors shine!

It’s a crowd pleaser. Make this for any gathering, or just to share with friends, and it won’t be the last time you make it.

Tips for making a Blood Orange Bundt Cake

These tips aren’t necessarily specific to this cake, but since that’s the cake we’re making, that’s what we’re talking about.

Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature. This is especially important for butter and eggs. Sally’s Baking Addiction explains it better than I could, but the bottom line is: room temperature ingredients lead to a smoother, more evenly textured batter, which means your cake comes out nice and tender.

Carefully prepare your bundt cake pan. I’ve read that certain baking sprays can be used for bundt pans, but I’ve never had good luck with those. I stick with the tried and true butter and flour method. Just rub the inside of your pan with butter, making sure to cover every inch. Then dust with flour, making sure that every bit that got buttered is also coated in flour.

Chill your pan while making the batter. This will keep the butter from getting too soft or melting while you’re making your batter, and will eventually make cake release much easier when it’s done baking.

Don’t over-mix your batter! Over-mixing leads to a dense, chewy, or tough cake, and no one wants that. Instead, mix until everything just comes together and is well combined. That’s all!

Let your oven preheat properly. Some ovens take longer to preheat than the display or beeper says. Mine actually takes an extra 10-15 minutes to get to 350 degrees. If you don’t already have an oven thermometer, get one; it’ll make a difference!

Well, ready to make a Blood Orange Bundt Cake now? The recipe is below. I hope y’all love it as much as I do. It really is the perfect cake for this time of year. If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like: