Fruitful
Back in my pre-vegan days, I used to enjoy eating a blood orange tea cake, which is just a hair sweet but has a wonderfully complex flavor. 4 eggs, though, makes for a rough recipe to veganize successfully.
The ever astounding V took a different route and, taking as base Isa’s Jelly Donut cupcake batter (featured in Veganomicon), created a new recipe which hits all the right spots. It’s rich and gooey, and would be perfect with a nice cup of tea.
Vegan Blood Orange Cake
1/3 cup olive oil
2 small blood oranges
1 cup soymilk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbs cornstarch
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup + 2 tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond essence
Glaze ingredients:
Juice and zest of one blood orange
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
For the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a 9″ springform cake pan.
In a mixing cup, combine the soymilk, vinegar and cornstarch and set aside.
Roughly chop up the blood oranges – use organic to be sure they’re pesticide free – skin and all, discarding the tops and tails and being careful to remove the seeds. Put the orange chunks in a food processor and blend with the olive oil until you have a marmalade consistency puree.
Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix the soymilk mixture with a fork to dissolve the cornstarch and pour into the flour mixture. Add the oil and orange mix, sugar and vanilla and almond essence, and mix well.
Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes
Glaze:
Combine glaze ingredients and mix until powdered sugar is dissolved.
If using springform pan, poke holes in the cake with a skewer and pour glaze over the cake while it is still hot and in the pan. Otherwise, turn the cake onto a plate and pour the glaze over it. Allow cake to cool and syrup to soak in before eating.