Today I felt like incorporating the color orange, so enjoy this fragrant soft, Square, Sponge Cake, with an aroma of vanilla and orange. Yesterday was the beginning of spring, which has gotten off to a bad start. It’s March 22nd and it’ stopped snowing.
So, I made this cake to not only entertain your taste buds but to remind you of, right now, the very distant feeling of spring.
This Square Blood Orange Cake with Chocolate Ganache makes me dream of spring, awakening, rebirth after the cold and darkness of winter.
In central Italy, in the remote times of the Latin world, the Latins had associated spring with a deity called Flora which means flower, from the Latin flos, floris.
The goddess Flora in the broader sense presaged the spring awakening and all that flourishes: youth, the senses of love, and hope.
This tasty cake with red-orange cream made with juicy red oranges, which in Sicily reaches its full maturation in the spring, scented with orange blossom.
How is the square blood orange cake made?
The cake is made up of two soft and fragrant layers of sponge cake that reminds me of when I was child. One day a week, my grandmother allowed her grandchildren to sleep at her house. For us children it was a big gathering.
The next morning for breakfast on the table was a soft sponge cake freshly baked emanating a vanilla and lemon fragrance. The cake was dipped into fresh milk that brought love and warmth all throughout my body. ?
The two layers were filled with blood orange cream, which is the same recipe as the Pastry Cream with the addition of -of course- orange juice, and then covered with Chocolate Ganache that I also used for the Panna Cotta.
A Square Blood Orange Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Sponge Cake
- 5 medium eggs room temperature
- 100 g flour 00 4.6 oz
- 30 g potato starch 1.1 oz
- 30 g almond flour 1.1 oz
- 150 g sugar 5.3 oz
- 1 scraped vanilla bean
Blood Orange Cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 125 g sugar 4.4 oz
- 45 g corn starch 3 tbsp
- 500 ml whole milk 2 cups
- 60 ml fresh blood orange juice ¼ cup
- 1 scraped vanilla bean
- blood orange zest
Instructions
- Sponge Cake
- Mix the eggs with the sugar.
- Heat the mixture to 40-50C, stirring constantly, the sugar melts, and the eggs will incorporate more air during the beating.
- Beat the mixture in a mixer for 15-20 minutes at medium speed.
- Add the sifted flour, starch potatoes, and almond flour and mix with a spatula from the bottom to the top to obtain a homogeneous consistency.
- Put the mixture into the cake pan properly greased and lightly floured.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) for about 40-50 minutes, never open the oven before 35 minutes.
- Do the toothpick test to check cooking, insert it in the center of the cake, and has to come out clean.
- After the time necessary to allow it to cool has passed, remove it from the mold.
- Let the sponge cake cool completely before slicing.
- Blood Orange Cream
- Put the milk with the scraped vanilla pod in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.
- Remove the pan from the stove and filter the milk.
- Separately, in a bowl pour the egg yolks, the vanilla caviar, sugar, and the orange zest and whisk vigorously until it’s completely combined.
- When the mixture is blended, add the cornstarch to the mixture, stir well to incorporate it.
- Pour the milk and the blood orange juice into the mixture of egg yolks.
- Put it on the stove and stir constantly with a whisk.
- Remove the cream from the stove as soon as it starts to thicken.
- Cool it quickly by pouring it into a cold pan and continue to stir with a whisk bringing it to a temperature below 50°C (122°F), this allows it to maintain the consistency of the cream intact.
- The orange cream will then be ready to fill the cake.
Notes
Unique gifts for mother
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