Hi friends! Hope you’ve all had a great start to 2017. My days have mostly been about trying to get back into work, and finding a routine again. It’s so hard after the holidays! If I skip checking my email for a week, it’s a real struggle to get back into it. I need to write to-do lists for every day, by hand, in my calendar and then strike things off my list as I go, to get motivated. Needless to say, my 2017 calendar is still pretty empty. But I hope that will change soon!

Do you guys have any goals or resolutions for 2017? I usually don’t, but if I were to pick something it would be to have more fun, laugh more, relax more and try not to worry about every. single. thing. Take better care of myself too. And to do things that make me happy.

Now, this cake! I loooove citrus season and especially blood oranges have a special place in my heart (and my belly, hah!). Also, they make the prettiest pink icing. I first made this cake in a bundt pan and with poppy seeds in place of black sesame seeds. Equally delicious! I bet it would taste amazing with lemon, too!

BLOOD ORANGE & BLACK SESAME LOAF CAKE

Yields one loaf cake, serves 8-10

You can omit the sesame seeds if you want to, or try using poppy seeds instead! I’ve tried poppy seeds and it’s equally delicious. If using poppy seeds, there is no need to toast them. You can also bake this cake in a bundt pan, just make sure it’s big enough (approx. 6 1/2 cups).

INGREDIENTS

LOAF CAKE

• 3 tbsp. black sesame seeds
• 330 g (2 1/3 cups) all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 175 g (1 1/2 stick) softened butter
• 330 g (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• finely grated zest of 2 blood oranges
• 100 ml (1/3 cup & 1 1/2 tbsp) fresh blood orange juice (of approximately 2 oranges)
• 75 ml (1/3 cup) milk

GLAZE

• 120 g (3/4 cup 2 tbsp.) powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 – 2 tbsp. fresh blood orange juice

INSTRUCTIONS

LOAF CAKE

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350F). Grease and flour a 6 1/2 cup/1 1/2 litre loaf pan (mine measures: inner depth 7 cm, bottom inner length 21 cm, bottom inner width 8,5 cm, top inner width 11,5 cm)
2. Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a skillet.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
5. Add the flour mixture, blood orange juice and milk in additions to the butter mixture and stir until batter is smooth. Add the orange zest and 2 1/2 tbsp of the toasted sesame seeds to the batter, leaving 1/2 tbsp seeds for topping.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake in the lower part of the oven for 70-85 minutes (start checking around 60 minutes, cover the top with foil if cake is getting too much color) or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

GLAZE

1. Stir together powdered sugar and blood orange juice in a small bowl. Drizzle over cake and top with 1/2 tbsp toasted black sesame seeds.

• PRINT

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