Blood Orange Spice Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting

The sweet tang of blood oranges mixes with the rich taste of spices in this absolutely stunning Blood Orange Spice Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting. Even while mixing the ingredients I could tell something magical was going to happen once it was all baked together. I had envisioned this gorgeous upside down blood orange cake for weeks now. To come up with this recipe I had to reserve engineer the image in my head into something that was not only beautiful, but flavorful too.

I am not naturally a baker as I live more by the a dash or this and a glug of that method when creating food. Baking requires much more precision and real measuring. My first couple attempts at this blood orange spice cake with greek yogurt frosting were just not quite right or didn’t come together as easily as I was hoping. I had to readjust and learn from what hadn’t worked the first time.

Normally I make my husband spend a couple of hours photographing the food before I let him eat it. So he was pretty happy to get the eat the “mistake” versions while I was working on the final recipe. I believe in making sure that all the recipes I bring to you not only taste great, but are easily repeatable. The final attempt and the recipe I’m sharing with you absolutely nailed it.

Tips for making the perfect blood orange spice cake:

Testing and retesting a recipe you learn some important tips along the way. Some you might already know because you are a better baker than me. But I hope that maybe I can stop someone else from making the mistakes I have commonly made in the past.

1. Always mix your wet and dry ingredients separately before combining. While I do really love to have less bowls to wash this is an instance where you absolutely must use two. This will make sure that your wet and dry ingredients are fully incorporated before you add them together. As in no chunks of baking soda in your finished cake.
2. Keep your mixing to a minimum. You know when your mom makes homemade bread and it’s like chewy through a particularly dense bagel? No? Just me? Well that is due to over mixing. It activates the gluten and does other science things. Just make sure to mix until combined and then stop. Don’t keep doing it or you won’t have a light and airy cake that you want.
3. Want to make your cake sit perfectly even? Use a long knife (like a bread knife) to even out the top of the bottom layer. Cut the cake horizontally to shave off the raised part on top. This will allow the top layer to sit on the bottom layer flat. 

While blood oranges do make this cake look absolutely stunning I believe that it would work just as well with any other oranges too. I have only made this cake in two 9″ rounds so I cannot speak to how it would adjust for other sized pans. Please let me know how it goes if you choose to make it in any other sized pans though!

Don’t forgot to share your pictures with me on social media at #thesimplesupper! I can’t wait to see how it turns out for you!

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Blood Orange Spice Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting

The sweet tang of blood oranges mixes with the rich taste of spices in this absolutely stunning Blood Orange Spice Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting. This upside down cake recipe is so simple for how incredible it looks. Ginger, allspice, and cinnamon mix to make this cake simply out of this world.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword blood orange cake, greek yogurt frosting, orange spice cake

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Cooling Time 30 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 8 People

Calories 379 kcal

Author Hayley

Ingredients

Spice Cake Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Butter Or desired shortening
• 3 Blood Oranges Sliced into rounds w/ rinds removed
• 2 1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour Sifted
• 2 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp All-Spice
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Ginger
• 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1 Stick Butter Room temperature/softened
• 1 Cup Maple Syrup
• 3 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla
• 1 Cup Applesauce
• 1 Tbsp Blood Orange Zest
• 2 Tbsp Blood Orange Juice

Greek Yogurt Frosting

• 1 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions

Spice Cake

1. Turn oven on to 350 degrees to preheat. Grease two 9" cake pans with butter or desired shortening. Arrange orange slices in the bottom of one pan to be the top layer. Set aside.

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients. All-purpose flour, baking powder, all-spice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and maple syrup until incorporated. Add eggs, applesauce, vanilla, zest, and orange juice and mix until thoroughly combined.

4. Slowly add the the dry ingredients to the wet. Mixing as you go. Mix only until combined. Do not over mix!

5. Evenly distribute batter between both cake pans. Careful to not disturb oranges in the top layer pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are golden brown.

7. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes without disturbing. After 10 minutes overturn pans on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 20 more minutes.

8. Prepare frosting while cakes are cooling.

Greek Yogurt Frosting

1. Add yogurt, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract and mix until thickened. This takes about 3 minutes. Let chill if not yet ready to use.

2. Using a spatula or a knife spread frosting over bottom layer (the cake without the oranges). Place other layer on top with oranges facing upwards. 

3. Let chill in fridge for 30 minutes or more for frosting to set.

4. Remove from fridge and serve! Can be kept for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Recipe Notes

Any kind of orange can be substituted for blood oranges if they are out of season. You can also substitute the maple syrup for 1 cup of granulated sugar if that's what you prefer to use.

I found that it was easiest to slice the oranges, then cut the peel off rather than peeling and then slicing them.