Citrus Drizzle Cake

Hello dear friends,

Mark your calendars for Thursday March 13th at 2pm Central Time. I’m doing a live workshop as part of the inaugural Grubstack festival! I’ll send out more info and how you can join in the next few days!

Now onto that cake..

This cake is one I have made several times for family and private events. People LOVE the bright hit of citrus, me included.

I really needed something perky in this cake, I must say the start of 2025 has been ROUGH.

January was a cacophony of illnesses and blizzards. February was filled unexpectedly with surgeries, more blizzards, way too much uncertainty in the world, very few days of school for my kids, and some real illness for my sweet grandmother who I made a quick trip across the country to see this week.

Is it spring yet?

Do you feel the same?

Sometimes life is like that.

Let’s have some cake.

Consider this cake the beginning of my campaign for more grapefruit, it will fit in well with my long-standing championship of celery, another underrepresented flavor, although maybe not in cakes…

The tang here highlights the grapefruit (don’t worry people, you can sub for lemon or orange if you MUST) but the grapefruit has a small bite that is so very pleasant with the runny honey.

A simple but rich and tangy bundt is soaked with a honey citrus syrup and topped with a beautiful glaze.

The sour cream in the cake recipe plays beautifully with the “five alive” flavor and adds a sara lee pound cake like quality (and I do mean that in the best way.

This citrus cake is the perfect perk up as we round the corner into spring!

Happy baking,

Rachel

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Below is one of my signature gluten free recipes!

Citrus Drizzle Cake

2 1/4 cups(293g) gluten free one to one blend such as King Arthur Measure for Measure
1 tsp (6g) baking powder
½ tsp (2g) baking soda
½ tsp (3g) salt
1 cup (200g) olive oil
2 cups (400g) sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp (3g) vanilla
1 lemon zested and juiced
1 lime zested and juiced
1 orange zested and juiced
1 cup(242g) sour cream 

Citrus Drizzle
1/4 cup (84g) honey
1/4 cup (56g) grapefruit juice (you can use orange, lemon, or lime if desired)

Grapefruit Honey Glaze

1 TB (21g) honey
2 Tb (28g) Grapefruit juice (more if needed to reach the right consistency)
Zest of one grapefruit
1 ½ cups (169g) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt cake pan well with butter or nondairy butter and set aside.  Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, and sour cream until well combined. Add the flour and mix until well combined.

Pour the batter into to prepared bundt pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the cake reads 200F. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

In a small saucepan heat the 1/4 cup grapefruit juice and 1/4 cup honey. Spoon the drizzle over the cake and let it soak in for 15 minutes.

Whisk together all of the glaze ingredients until well combined.  Drizzle over the cooled cake.  The glaze will stiffen as the cake sits.

PS. In the realm of things that give me a little cheer - check out this little springy masterpiece by my mother. She paints tiny artworks and makes them into birthday and greeting cards. I love it.