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Had time to actually bake a dessert tonight. Since the weather forecast calls for some pretty wintry weather 'round these parts, I decided I'd skip the usual winter sweets flavors of gingerbreads and whatnot and go with something that could at least pass for summery. Had a few blood oranges left in the 'fridge, which translated into these: glazed mini orange poundcakes with blood orange curd (at least in part because I can pretty much do poundcakes with my eyes closed, since they're inherently equal parts by weight butter, sugar, egg, and flour.)
Set up my camera on a tripod and built up the elements of the shot in the viewfinder to get the composition here. I’m pretty happy with it overall, but I think there’s probably something I could have done to punch up the foreground a little bit more. Still pondering that one, since I didn’t come up with anything I liked while I was fiddling with it.
Didn't make an explicit note of my flash power levels, but the idea was to light from behind with a strobe in my octabox, with a second strobe above and in front to fill shadows, bounced off a white umbrella. Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.8 prime, 1/250s @ ƒ/8, ISO100. Color processing in Aperture and Nik Viveza, but pretty close to the straight-out-of-camera image.
Ingredients
For the cakes
8 oz. sugar
8 oz. butter (just a bit colder than room temperature)
4 large eggs
8 oz. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
finely grated zest of 2 oranges (reserve juice for curd)
For the blood orange curd
1/3 c. blood orange juice
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. Grand Marnier
2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
3 tbl. butter, cut into small pieces and frozen
finely grated zest of one orange
For the glaze
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. Grand Marnier
milk
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two mini loaf pans or a single 8"x5" loaf pan.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer until light in color and fluffy. Add the salt and orange zest. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition until incorporated and scraping down the mixer bowl before adding the next egg. Fold in the flour until no streaks of dry flour remain. Fill your loaf pans and bake until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean. For my mini loaf pans, this was about a 50 minute bake time, a normal sized pan will likely take 10-15 minutes longer.
Remove from the oven, and let cool completely on a wire rack (you can remove them from the loaf pans pretty much immediately.)
While the cakes cool, make the curd. Combine the sugar, juice, and Grand Marnier in a saucepan and place over low heat. Put the eggs and yolk in a mixing bowl and whisk them smooth. When the juice begins to simmer and the sugar has dissolved, slowly pour about half of it into the eggs, whisking constantly, to temper the eggs. Pour the eggs into the saucepan and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens almost to a pudding consistency, 5-6 minutes. Do not allow it to boil or it will curdle. The final temperature will be about 190°F. Remove from the heat, add the zest, and whisk in the frozen butter a few pieces at a time until all the butter is incorporated. Pour into a container, cover, and place in the fridge. It will continue to set as it cools, but if it behaves like my batch did it will likely stay a just-pourable consistency rather than a spreadable one.
To make the glaze, combine the confectioner's sugar and Grand Marnier with just enough milk to make a thin glaze (it won't take much; work in just a few drips at a time.) The glaze will set quickly, so when you get a good temperature drizzle the glaze over the poundcakes and let it set up.
Serve slices of poundcake at room temperature, topped with the curd.
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