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. 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? Usually I 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! Citrus season is one of my favorite seasons and especially blood oranges have a special place in my heart (and my belly, hah!). Also, they make the prettiest pink icing. First, I made this cake in a bundt pan and with poppy seeds in place of black sesame seeds. Equally delicious! 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
- 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)
- Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a skillet.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
Monique | WritingMonique says
This looks absolutely delicious!
linda says
Thanks Monique!! It’s soo good!
Rachael says
That looks AMAZING!!
Rachael xx.
theteacozykitchen.blogspot.co.uk
linda says
Thank you Rachael! xx
Bonnie says
This looks amazing! But is it okay for me to lessen the amount of the black sesame seeds or omit it altogether? Not a huge fan of black sesame. 🙁 Or anything I can substitute it with?
linda says
Hi Bonnie! You can definitely omit, or try using poppy seeds! I tried that and it’s delicious!
Ellie | Hungry by Nature says
As always, this is absolutely stunning! Your food photography is just incredible!
linda says
Thank you so much sweet Ellie! xx
Elize says
Wow! The Cake looks so beautiful! Great job. Sounds delicious too!
elise | les filles de madeleine says
Blood oranges have a special place in my heart, too. I was just so mesmerized with them as a kid, and they still make me happy 🙂 This cake looks and sounds absolutely delicious and while I’m not a huge fan of pink, you gotta love the color of that glaze!
Melissa says
Oh Wow. Nice! I wonder if you can also just use white sesame seeds for this cake?
sabrina says
Delicious cake, and very chic!
Chloe (Musings on Dinner) says
ooh! I have black sesame seeds, I have blood oranges in my next produce order, and I am looking forward to trying this. Thank you for the recipe!
Amaryllis @ The Tasty Other says
I love how you’ve paired black sesame with a citrus-y cake- I’m sure it must really stand out. And as always, your photos are gorgeous and the styling impeccable! Thanks yet again for the inspiration, Linda! x
Niharika says
Absolutely beautiful Linda, love the photographs.
linda says
Thank you for your kind comment Niharika! x
Elinor aka Beachhutcook says
Isn’t that just the prettiest looking cake. Just what we need to brighten up our Januarys.
veronica says
I made these in mini loaves with poppy seeds they came out so good!
Lene says
Tried it yeasterday. It was absolutely delicious (even though it didn´t look as pretty pink as yours.) I used poppy seeds instead of sesame seeds. Thank you for the great recipe. Love the pictures.
Iga @ Dietmap says
Your photos are amazing. im in love
Elo says
C’est tellement beau !
Encore une merveille
V says
Thank-you for the recipe! Definitely the type of cake this preggo is craving.
Itoshi says
This post is so lovely! I would love to try your recipe out, however I have one question. In the list of ingredients it requires 330g of all purpose flour and granulated sugar, but states a differing imperial system. Which is the correct value? I would love your response!
Thank youuuu!
linda says
Thank you soo much for your sweet comment!! 1 cup of sugar weighs much more than 1 cup of flour, if that makes sense 🙂 So all measurements are correct!
The-FoodTrotter says
This gently pink glaze is so beautiful. I love sometime those simple and delicate cakes, perfect to be served with a steaming cup of tea 🙂
linda says
SO true!! Simplicity is often times the best 🙂
Megan says
This looks so delicious! I’d like to make it for my partner to take to work for his team—but I’ve got to make it GF and vegan… Do you think I could reasonably swap for GF flour, egg replacements, and almond milk without totally wrecking the loaf? Beautiful photography!
linda says
Hi Megan! Almond milk and vegan butter I’m sure would work. I’m not too familiar with GF flour and egg replacements though.. I’d love to know how it went if you decided to give it a try!
And thank you so much 🙂
Heather says
Thank you for your beautiful recipe. I tried it yesterday to bring to a post event potluck. It was a hit! The best part I think is the flavor of the toasted sesame seeds, alone a beautiful and striking flavor, but a perfect balance to the sweet and sour of the sugar and citrus. Thank you also for the weighted measurements. That was new for me and it was really neat to try using my scale for baking instead of just the occasional calorie counting.
Yvonne says
Oooh I love this – such pretty photos and the recipe sounds devine.
You might liek to check out my sweet treats too: http://funkyforty.com/category/food/
xx Yvonne
Izzy Bruning says
This looks amazing! xx
Izzy |https://pinchofdelight.wordpress.com
Emily says
Made this in a bundt pan and turned out perfect! I did add the tiniest splash more milk than called for, my bake time was about 50 minutes… likely due the different pan, I’d think. The black sesame is perfect with the blood orange – kind of like lemon poppyseed muffins all grown up!
Cookie says
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe! I made my own doughnuts version. They tasted awesome!!
I love your blog
XoXo
linda says
So glad to hear they were a success!! Thanks so much for your kind words 🙂
Anar says
Gorgeous and absolutely delicious. I already made this loaf twice. Just one thing I’m confused about my cake spills over the sides instead of rising up like it shows in your photos. What am I doing wrong? And also is it actually 1&1/2 tsp baking powder? I used 1&1/4 tsp second time but it still spills over the sides. Thank you
linda says
Hi Anar! I’m so glad you like it! 🙂 It sounds like maybe your loaf pan is a little bit too small, maybe you could try a bigger one, or reserving some of the batter for a few muffins?
Anat says
Hi thank you for your reply I’m just seeing this! In fact I used the exact pan dimensions as you describe on top. if you have any other idea of why it happened I’d love to hear that. Regardless I will keep making this loaf as its one of the tastiest I’ve ever came by! Love the extra bite the black sesame adds to it ??? Anat (the “r” was a typo:)
linda says
And it holds 1 1/2 litres of batter too? Sorry to be asking but I just want to make sure 🙂 I’m puzzled as to why this happens! Maybe you could use a bigger baking pan, say one that holds at least 7 cups? You could even use a round one or a bundt pan if you have one 🙂 I’m really glad you like the cake!!