I am finally in Valentine’s mood. What even is that mood anyway?! I guess what I mean is – I’m not in ‘Christmas is over’ pouting mood anymore, I am starting to realize this Winter will eventually come to an end and there is a lot of love in my life (and hearts are cute). I certainly am not going all over the house hanging hearts, I leave the decorating for Fall and Christmas, even though I did put a few nice candles out and if I can be honest, I do have a cute white felt garland I got at Target last year and it would be on my fireplace, but I can’t find it.
I did do a couple of Valentine’s Day bakes though, and this is one of them, Blood Orange Bundtlets and can we all just admire how cute and PINK! they are??? They are cute, AND delicious I might say. I adapted this recipe from Lorann, I wanted a good base for my little bundts but I wanted them made with blood oranges and I didn’t want the cranberries in them. Nothing against orange and cranberries, it is so so good, but in this I wanted the blood orange to shine on its own. I also soaked them in some yummy blood orange simple syrup and then finished them off with that glorious pink glaze. I mean, they are cute!!
Candied orange slices are not necessary but are also very cute and I have to say, the best little punch of sweet snack right around when that dreaded 3 o’clock urge hits! I’m not writing a separate recipe for that, I just doubled my simple syrup and reserved half for blood orange slices. I cooked them in it in a single layer in a wide pan for about 45 minutes, after I took pictures with them I cut them in half and rolled them in sugar. As I said, not necessary but I highly recommend!
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1⁄4 Orange Oil (or 1 tsp orange extract)
- ¾ cup orange juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup blood orange juice
- 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp blood orange juice
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a bowl of a stand up mixer blend sugar and butter for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides and add the egg, orange oil and orange peel. Mix and scrape the sides then add the orange juice and blend. Add the flour mixture and blend on low until just combined.
- Spoon the batter into greased and floured 3x3" mini bundt molds, just over half way full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- While the bundtlets are baking make the simple syrup. Combine sugar and blood orange juice in a sauce pan and cook on medium low for about ten minutes.
- Once the bundtlets are done baking let them sit for five minutes and then spoon some of the syrup over each one. Let them sit like that in their molds for another ten minutes and then turn them out on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before dipping them in the blood orange glaze.
- For the glaze combine the confectioners sugar and blood orange juice and mix well. You want the glaze to be on a thicker side so it doesn't just slide off so start with just 2 Tbsp of the juice and add more as needed.
