Citrus Pound Cake w/Blood Orange Sauce (Halloween)

Citrus Pound Cake w/Blood Orange Sauce (Halloween)

From: ArcaMax Publishing's "After Work Gourmet," by Lisa Messinger, via creators.com & CookingLight.com (10/19/2011)

(Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists & the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" & "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column.)

Notes from Lisa: Do the oranges in your juice benefit from volcanic soil & cool ocean breezes? If not, you might think about trading up to sweet tart or gory oranges, choice for Halloween parties because they have the dark red juice of blood oranges.

Though not in season until December through May & often difficult to get since they are mainly grown in the Mediterranean, bottled gourmet imported blood orange juice is available anytime, often at reasonable prices, from online retailers, like Amazon.com & at gourmet & specialty chains like Trader Joe's.

Italian Volcano Blood Orange Juice brand, recently selling on Amazon.com for about $15 for three 750 ml bottles, is made from oranges from a small area of Eastern Sicily (the volcanic soil heart of blood orange country) in varying color & flavor combinations rarely available from other parts of the world. Blood orange sodas, syrups & concentrates also sell at retailers, perfect for snow cones & inclusion in sophisticated desserts.

In fact, blood oranges, since they are sweeter than ordinary varieties, are considered one of the top dessert oranges in the world. The juice is outstanding in cakes & sauces for baked goods. It also has a bold presentation & flavor choice for savory foods, like the Hollandaise-based maltaise sauce, which it is often used in, or mixed with spices for a cocktail sauce for shrimp cocktail or dressing for shrimp salad. Cold, slick shrimp (ghoulishly resembling severed fingers!) with a blood sauce make an interesting Halloween menu choice.

The bright red juice, excellent alone as a refreshing beverage, is also the perfect base for grown-up Halloween party cocktails. Cooking Light magazine suggests a pitcher of dynamically colored mimosas with 1 / 2 cup strained blood orange juice, 3 cups champagne or sparkling wine & 1 tablespoon Cointreau (orange-flavored liqueur).

Ingredients Cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon for dusting pan

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

10 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup (4 ozs) Neufchatel cheese, softened, or cream cheese, if necessary

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 teaspoon grated orange rind

3 large eggs

1/2 cup (preferably low-fat) buttermilk

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 large egg whites

Ingredients Sauce:

2 cups blood orange juice (see Note)

2/3 cup sugar

Yields 16 servings

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

2. To prepare the cake: Coat a 10 inch tube pan with non-stick cooking spray. Dust with 1 tablespoon flour. Set aside.

3. Lightly spoon 2 1/4 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder & salt. Stir well with a whisk.

4. Combine 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, butter & cheese in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 7 minutes). Add the rinds; beat well. Add 3 large eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Combine the buttermilk, 1/4 cup orange juice & lemon juice. Add the flour mixture & buttermilk mixture alternately to the sugar mixture, beginning & ending with the flour mixture.

6. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form, using clean, dry beaters. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.

7. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the batter & fold in the remaining egg white mixture.

8. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour & 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

9. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from pan. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack.

10. To prepare the sauce: Combine the blood orange juice & the 2/3 cup sugar in a large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, carefully stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat & simmer until reduced to 1 cup (about 30 minutes), stirring gently occasionally.

11. Serve the sauce with the cake.

Note: When blood oranges are not in season, or anytime, you can use bottled blood orange juice (strained if there is any pulp in it). During blood orange season, if desired, you can use the strained juice of fresh blood oranges (about 12 for this recipe). Regular strained orange juice, preferably fresh, also can be substituted.