Orange Mimosa Cake

The only fresh, local fruit this time of year is citrus. It seems all my friends have trees and I've been (luckily) inundated with fresh oranges and lemons. My son has an orange tree and I've gone through quite a few buckets from his tree. I'm always looking for new recipes to try and this cake, from the cookbook Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories, caught my eye. Her recipe calls for blood oranges.  I had no blood oranges and needed to use up the fresh-from-the-tree oranges I had.  Blood oranges have a pink tint to them.  The resulting pink in the glaze would make this cake a perfect dessert for a Valentine's Day celebration. It was good with traditional oranges but I am looking forward to making it with blood oranges.

This is basically a pound cake; lots of mixing of the butter and sugar.  It's got a wonderful orange flavor as orange zest is rubbed into the sugar, thus distributing the orange all throughout the cake. It gets extra moistness from the simple syrup that is poured over the baked cake. It was great for dessert and it was great for a mid-morning treat!

A bonus to making this cake is that there will be leftover champagne. A little bubbly, while baking? Why not!

Orange Mimosa Cake

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pink  Champagne
3 tablespoons orange zest
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Simple Syrup
1/2 cup pink  Champagne
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Orange Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Heat oven to 315 degrees. Spray a 10-cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar with the orange zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant.

Add the butter and salt to the bowl and cream together with the sugar. Beat on medium-high for 7 minutes, until butter is pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour in two batches, mixing each time until just combined. Pour in the champagne and vanilla extract and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 70-80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Let cool to room temperature.

To make the simple syrup, in a small pot over medium heat, combine all the ingredients and cook until the mixture is reduced by about a third and thickened; about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl until it is a pourable consistency.

To assemble cake, poke holes all over the cooled cake with a skewer or fork. Slowly pour the simple syrup over the cake so it's absorbed. Repeat until the syrup is used up.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let it set for 10 minutes.