Blood Orange Cake with Naturally Pink Buttercream - Super Moist!

This blood orange cake is soft, moist and packed with fresh blood orange juice and zest, then topped with a naturally pink blood orange buttercream. I'll also show you how to extend blood orange season so you can make this cake all year round. It's an easy seasonal cake that keeps beautifully moist for days.

About This Blood Orange Cake

This blood orange cake makes the most of gorgeous seasonal blood oranges. We use blood orange juice and zest in the cake and the juice in the frosting to tint it a natural soft pink! The cake is soft, moist and keeps well for days. It is based on my lemon cake recipe.

Blood oranges are a seasonal citrus fruit where the flesh and juice ranges from a mottled purple to a deep dark purple. The flavour of blood oranges is usually sweeter than regular oranges with a flavour that resembles oranges mixed with raspberries or cranberries. There are several varieties of blood orange, some darker than others. There are mainly three varieties: Moro with its dark purple flesh as well as Tarocco and Sanguinello with mottled, light purple edging.

Two different types sold together

Blood oranges are in season from July through October in Australia and from December to May in the Northern Hemisphere. You can usually tell Moro blood oranges from the burgundy shading on the outside but blood oranges usually aren't labelled with the variety and are sold as blood oranges and sometimes they are mixed like the ones I bought (unless you get them at a farmer's market and can perhaps ask the farmer).

What is unique about blood oranges is that the juice tints any frosting a really beautiful pink and is why bakers like me look forward to blood orange season every year! I always make something every year with them whether it's an upside down blood orange cake, blood orange pound cake or chicken with blood oranges.

Why This Recipe Works and Why You'll Love It

This cake stays moist for days - SERIOUSLY! It's my favourite cake recipe for this reason as you don't have to finish it all up quickly. Just store it in an airtight container.
This cake uses both butter and oil - butter is for flavour while oil is for moistness.
I'll show you how to extend blood orange season so that it lasts all year long! Woohoo!

Video How To Make A Blood Orange Cake

Video: Blood Orange Cake recipe

Ingredients For Blood Orange Cake

Flour - Use cake flour for a softer cake. To make 1 cup/150g/5.2ozs of cake flour replace 2 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with cornflour/fine cornstarch and whisk well. I always mix up a big batch of this and keep it in a container ready for baking cakes as it produces a softer cake texture.

Baking powder - To help create a lighter texture (different from bicarb).

Salt - A little fine salt to balance the sweetness.

Milk - Full cream or whole milk. Can also use alternative milks like oat or almond milk.

Blood orange juice - Freshly squeezed blood orange or orange juice. Blood orange juice does give the cake a slightly darker, murkier colour so if you want a golden hued cake, use regular orange juice.

Sugar - Caster or superfine sugar as this melts into the batter better.

Butter - Salted butter. Very soft but not melted butter.

Oil - A neutral flavoured oil like avocado or canola oil.

Blood orange zest - Always zest your oranges before juicing them! It makes it so much easier to zest that way :)

Eggs - Large eggs, room temperature.

Icing sugar mixture - As this buttercream doesn't need to set hard, we use icing sugar mixture which has cornflour added to it so that it doesn't clump like pure icing or confectioners sugar and is much easier to sift.

Vanilla - Vanilla bean paste, extract or essence.

Tips For Making Blood Orange Cake

1 - You can bake this in a 20x30x5.5cm/8x12x2inch tin or bake it in 2x20cm/8inch pans. I don't recommend baking cakes like this in a square pan as the corners trap heat and can make the corners cook faster than the centre leaving the centre sunken. Making slices are fine for square tins but cakes that need to rise often have sunken centres.

2 - To extend blood orange season, cut blood oranges into segments and freeze them. They will last for up to 1 year in the freezer. Thawing them may change the texture but they are fine to juice and use in cooking. I learned this trick from some orange farmers that I met. Otherwise you can juice the oranges and freeze the juice in ice cube trays and then remove and freeze. And freeze the finely grated zest too!

3 - Make sure that the butter and eggs are room temperature. The butter should be soft but not melted, and a butter knife should be able to pass through it easily without exerting a lot of pressure. I always place the eggs in a bowl of hot water before using them. This will prevent curdling the mixture.

4 - I like to rest my uncooked cake batter in the baking tin for 5 minutes on the bench before baking it to allow the gluten to relax and produce a softer cake.

5 - Always "steam cool" your cake after it is baked. Once the cake is out of the oven, cover it with foil or a baking tray upside down to trap the steam so that it goes back into the cake. This is a trick I learned to keep cakes moist. Avoid using cling film as it can melt against the hot baking tin.

Blood Orange Cake Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Serves: 10 people

Ingredients Needed

270g/9.5oz cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
150ml/5floz milk
110ml/3.9floz blood orange juice
300g/10.6oz caster or superfine sugar
180g/6oz butter, very soft but not melted
2 tablespoons finely grated blood orange zest
60ml/2floz neutral oil (eg avocado or canola)
4 eggs, room temperature

For Frosting

200g/7oz butter, softened
450g/1lb icing sugar mixture
2-4 tablespoons blood orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 BATTER - Line a 20x30x5.5cm/8x12x2inch rectangular baking tin on the base and sides. Preheat oven to 140C/284F fan forced or 160C/320F conventional (low). Sieve the flour (270g/9.5oz cake flour), baking powder (3 teaspoons) and salt (1/2 teaspoon) together in a bowl. In a jug, mix the milk (150ml/5floz) and blood orange juice (110ml/3.9floz) and allow to curdle. Fit a mixer with a beater attachment and beat the sugar (300g/10.6oz caster or superfine sugar), butter (180g/6oz), oil (60ml/2floz avocado or canola oil) and zest (2 tablespoons finely grated blood orange zest) together on medium speed for 3 minutes. Then add the eggs (4 eggs) in one at a time beating well between each addition.

Step 2 BAKE - Fold in the flour mixture in 2-3 lots alternating with the milk mixture. Do not overmix, just bring the mixture together until there are no streaks. Rest this mixture on the benchtop for 5 minutes, then bake for 35 minutes or until the centre springs back when pressed or a skewer comes out clean. Cover immediately with foil or another baking tin upside down (not touching the cake's surface) and trap the steam into the cake (aka steam cool the cake).

Step 3 BUTTERCREAM - Once the cake is completely cooled, it is ready to ice. Fit the mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk the butter (200g/7oz) for 2 minutes on medium speed until pale. Sift the icing sugar mixture (450g/1lb) into the butter and set on lowest speed for the first 30 seconds or so until all of the icing sugar is incorporated. Add in the blood orange juice (2 tablespoons) and vanilla (1 teaspoon). Then increase speed to high for 2 minutes. Check the colour and if you want a more pronounced pink, add more blood orange juice (up to 2 tablespoons more). Spread over the surface of the cake. Cut into squares.

Personal Note

I always look forward to blood orange season and when they leave it means that it is early spring and it's really warming up. Speaking of the seasons, I mentioned a few months ago about getting solar batteries installed. Well, I may have spoken too soon because they worked for about a month and then they stopped working completely.

And for the last few months we've been trying to get them to come out to fix it but they just ignore our phone calls and emails.

We had one last resort after having no use for two months. Thankfully, Mr NQN had paid for them on our credit card. So we had no choice but to start the process for a chargeback. It's funny how fast the company sprung into action. They went from months of ignoring us to a phone call the next day.

But of course it wasn't quick. So far we've had half a dozen visits from various people with varying levels of competence. One completely made up what he was doing which just blew our mind that he was holding down a job as an electrician. I wondered how he goes to work every day to just lie to people.

After the sixth visit from technicians we finally had it fixed (well it is early days, I'll wait at least a couple of months to see if it sticks). It was actually my priority to have it fixed before summer as I needed air conditioning at night. Well actually the plan was to get it fixed before winter but that didn't happen!

So tell me Dear Reader, is there a seasonal food that you like? Have you ever had to struggle with getting something installed?

Blood Orange Cake with Naturally Pink Buttercream - Super Moist! was written by Lorraine Elliott and published on Monday, October 5, 2026 in Blood Oranges, Cake Recipes, Easy Cakes, Desserts and Delicious Recipes.