Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 225g
- 3/4 cup cornmeal 110g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 3/4 cup butter 170g; softened
- 1/4 cup neutral flavored olive oil or veg or canola oil 60ml
- 1/2 cup blood orange juice 120ml; I used 1/4 c of regular orange juice mixed w/ 1/4 c of blood orange juice
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the orange slices:
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 blood oranges (preferably organic), sliced thin, rind/skin left on
Instructions
For the orange slice "upside down":
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Melt the 4 tbsp of butter and the brown sugar in a 9" heavy round cake pan (I used a Nordicware cake tin). This should take 5 minutes.
- Spread the butter sugar mixture with a silicone spatula to cover the bottom of the tin.
- I buttered the sides of the pan as well, after removing the pan from the oven, because I wanted to guarantee NO STICKING.
- Lay the thinly sliced oranges on top of this mixture in the pan, it's ok to overlap them, because they do shrink after baking. 2-3 oranges should be enough.
- Set the cake pan aside while making the batter.
For the cake:
- Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cornmeal and salt) in a large bowl.
- In another bowl, beat the sugar with butter, vanilla, zest and eggs. Add the juice and oil last and mix together.
- Add the wet to the dry and mix to form a smooth batter.
- Pour into the pan over the orange slices in the butter/sugar mixture.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Let rest only 5 minutes in the pan (you may need to run a knife around the edges).
- Invert onto a cooling rack and tap lightly to release.
- My cake came out of the pan like a dream.
- Let fully cool before slicing (you want the top to harden a bit).