Marmalade Cake with Campari Icing
Here’s my cake version of an Americano (a lovely apéritif coming into warmer weather). This could be more Negroni-ish with the addition of juniper berry extract (or could be brushed with gin before icing), but the orange and vermouth fragrance are just lovely with this moist and fluffy cake. Recipe after the jump.
Here’s a simple drizzle cake variation baked in a regular cake pan, with colorful sugar sprinkles on top.
Marmalade Cake with Campari Icing
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
3 whole mandarin oranges or one navel orange, seeded and cut into large chunks (leave the peels on!)
~3/4 cup orange marmalade, preferably chunky
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sweet red vermouth
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp Campari
couple drops yellow food coloring
Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 10-cup bundt pan (or two 8″ round cake pans). Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
If you’re using a navel orange, trim about 1/4″ off the ends. Pulse the orange(s) in a food processor until they’re very well chopped up but still sort of chunky. Add enough marmalade to make about 1 1/2 cups total, then mix with the eggs, oil and vermouth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes in the bundt pan or 30 minutes in round cake pans. If using a bundt pan, cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack, or turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.
When completely cooled, mix the powdered sugar with the Campari and food coloring (helps make it more orange instead of pink) and drizzle over the top of the cake(s).