Test Kitchen: Triple Lemon Bundt Cake, aka Triple Blood Orange Bundt Cake

Original recipe is here.

I'm not usually a fan of recipes that go on and on and on, but this one was deceptively simple.

Also, blood oranges are in season and I got a bag of them from Costco last week, so I was itching to put them to use. Basically, I followed this recipe to the letter except for two things:

Every time the word "lemon" appeared in the recipe, I replaced it with the more exotic sounding "blood orange". Not that there's anything wrong with lemons, everyone loves lemons, especially me. But come on, blood orange? Ooh the drama.

Second, I don't currently own (emphasis on "currently", because I will) the pan used by Unsophisticook, which in retrospect was a mistake. The whole concept with the swirls, glaze and sugared zest just didn't work as well with my pan.

To recap, this works really well with this pan:

This not so much:

The cake itself was easy to make and turned out fine. Then I went to glaze it. What I didn't know (not having worked with blood oranges before) is that they didn't turn the glaze the vibrant shade of red/orange I was expecting. You know, like this:

The glaze turned out a very unfortunate shade of pink. Bubble-gum pink. Like, five year old girl's birthday party pink:

Hmmm...

Also, I have got to get out of the habit of making my glazes so runny.

At this point I realized this wasn't working out, but since I was already so far in , I figured I might as well finish it off with the sugared zest garnish. Now this did turn out nice and orange.

That's quite a mix of colors, there. Looks more
like a garden than a cake.

The cake itself was pretty good, especially with the glaze and sugared zest. Again, the shape of the pan was a liability with the sugar, because it either sat on top or fell off. The swirls of the other pan would keep it on the cake.

Would I make this again? Yes, with lemon, as the recipe called for and with the pan Unsophisticook used. If I make it again with blood oranges, I would do a plain white glaze, which I think would actually make the color of the sugared zest really pop, and again, use the other pan. I don't think my vaulted cathedral pan lends itself well to glazes. I've done cakes in it that I just dusted with confectioners sugar instead of icing, and they look great.

Have a sweet day!