Little blood orange and date cakes

Perfectly one-person sized and against the odds

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I am writing this in the smallest chink of time. A sliver. A shaving. My whole family (apart from me) are down with a bad cold. I’ve squeezed a lot of oranges and cut endless grapes in half, it feels miraculous to have a few minutes to myself.

While I do, I wanted to share these little cakes with you. I made them last week when a heaving, cheerful box of blood oranges arrived at my door. A few were wrapped in thin printed paper, I always think it would look great in a frame. It was the best kind of present from Vincenzo, a family-run Italian produce supplier. Today I saw them in my local greengrocers for 3 for £1.20, which for a blood orange is pretty good. It's all telling us we are in peak blood orange season.

These cakes are a variation of a recipe from my Guardian column with a few adjustments to make them the cake I want to eat right now. Adjustments included - more dates, a bit less sugar and some finely chopped stem ginger which I’m using a lot this winter.

There are a few varieties of blood oranges, the main two we have in the shops here are - Moro which finish their season at the end of March and Torocco which has a later season so we still have a good couple of months of them - until the end of May. Cutting into one will always make me feel good about life. Orange on the outside, bright, purply red on the inside. A kitchen illusion.

Side bar. Along with the blood oranges Vincenzo also sent me some blood lemons. BLOOD LEMONS! I’ve rarely been more excited and that tells you all you need to know about the thrill level of my life these days. If like me, the idea of a blood lemon sounds deeply exhilarating then there will be more on them in the next few weeks.

Back to the cakes. I love them. They have a perfect soft crumb, caramelly sweetness from a bit of brown sugar and some soft sticky dates, and a mellow hit of stem ginger. Topped with a pretty slice of blood orange which brings some citrus freshness.

I use salted butter here which makes all the difference in these cakes. A little salt next to the sharp sweetness of the blood orange and the fudgy chew of the dates is so pleasing and I think it's this contrast that sets these little cakes apart.

You could, of course, use any oranges instead of blood oranges here. You could also use the batter to make a larger cake with lots of orange slices on top - I’ve not tested this but it would work, it would just need longer in the oven, 50 minutes would be my guess. If you can’t get hold of stem ginger then a 2 cm coin (about 10g) piece of fresh ginger will work, just make sure you use the finest grater you have to grate it into the batter.

But I like them just like this - perfectly one-person sized and topped with bright fluro pink discs of blood orange.

Short and sweet this week, I am frankly amazed that I managed any writing but this recipe is in your hands so now there is soup to make and grapes to cut in half.

Anna x

Little blood orange cakes

Perfectly one-person sized cakes topped with a slice of blood orange. Some chew from dates, caramel sweetness from brown sugar and some stem ginger for extra-ness. I make them in a standard 12 hole muffin tin, no need to line it.

Makes 12 little cakes

220g salted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
150g light brown muscovado sugar, plus 60g for the tins
3 blood oranges, zested, then peeled, pith removed and cut into 1cm-thick discs
4 medium, organic eggs
220g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
6 dates, pitted and chopped
3 balls of stem ginger, plus the syrup (or 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated)
100ml of milk of your choice

Prepare the muffin tins

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/gas 4. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin with some soft butter. Add a heaped teaspoon of light muscovado sugar to each greased mould and shake the tin so the sugar covers and sticks to the sides.

Prep the flavourings

Finely grate the zest from 3 blood oranges and set aside for later. Peel the oranges, removing all the white pith. Cut each orange into 1cm-thick slices and put a slice in the base of each mould. Remove the stones and roughly chop 6 dates and then finely chop 3 balls stem ginger.

Cream the butter & sugar

Put the softened 220g butter and 150g light muscovado sugar into the bowl of a mixer and cream until light and fluffy (this will take about 5 minutes). You can also do this with a hand mixer or by hand. Then, crack in 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing in each only fully before adding the next so the mix doesn’t split.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients

Mix together the 220g flour and 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder and whisk together to remove any lumps. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients at a time, gently mixing between each addition. Stir in the chopped dates, stem ginger, orange zest, breaking up any big clumps of dates. Finally, fold in the 100ml of milk. You should have a thick spoonable cake batter.

Spoon in the batter

Spoon the batter evenly between the holes of the muffin tray and bake for 20 minutes, until risen, golden and a metal skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Finish and cool

While they are still warm, prick a couple of holes in each cake with a metal skewer and pour a teaspoon of ginger syrup over the bottom of each cake (you can skip this bit if you have used fresh ginger). Leave for 2-3 minutes to soak. Run a small palette knife around the edge of each cake to loosen the warm sponges from the tin, then carefully put a cooling rack on top of the sponges. Flip the tin upside down confidently, then slowly lift the muffin tin until the cakes have been released.

Serving, storage and freezing

These cakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days and in the fridge for 4 though the crumb will be denser if you store in the fridge. I’ve never frozen them but I don’t see why you couldn’t. If I froze them I’d heat them in the oven for 5-6 mins at 180 once defrosted and serve warm.

Things to click on:

• Parents for the future

• A supper club not to be missed

• Lemon yellow flowers

• The book of the year, we know it already

• What I did with the rest of the blood oranges

• On the pink theme

• If I had more time on my hands this week I’d make this

• Learn to naturally dye easter eggs

• Desperate to get here soon

• Where to buy our dates

• Don’t miss my chat with Carla Lalli Music next week, on Substack