Gluten Free Spiced Mandarin Orange Pound Cake with Spiced Blood Orange Tea

I’m not a fan of orange-flavored desserts. But here’s an orange (more specifically, mandarin) pound cake! Contradiction: absolutely. Successful baking venture: also absolutely. Chocolate orange is, in my book, one of the highest offenders, which I know is a wildly unpopular opinion. I used to love those chocolate oranges that we got as gifts on Christmas morning or Christmas eve and smash on the table until they splintered into a dozen perfectly-molded chocolate orange segments, melting on our tongues. Years and years of these, and probably some unfavorable experience with an overly-sweet orange cake over did it for the orange stuff and I retreated to safer spaces of lemon, lime, strawberry, and raspberry. But here we are, years later and I think it’s about time I give orange a shot again – I think I could even go for one of those chocolate oranges!

This pound cake, in all of its glorious citrusiness, is my leap back into the orange world, and boy was it a good first plunge. This is also the third collab we’ve prepared with the amazing Erin of Basil and Beauty – a fellow foodie, foodtographer, and food blogger (check her out!), and a master of the most incredible teas/drinks/pairings with our cake recipes. The first two were our pumpkin Swiss roll paired with her pumpkin spice golden milk, then these spiced pear cupcakes paired with her vanilla pear tea, now this sunburst of a collab: all the tang of a million mandarins/tangerines/blood oranges in this buttery glazed pound cake paired with her ABSOLUTELY fantastic Spiced Blood Orange Tea. Y’all. I drank three cups of this tea today after the shooting these photos and boy did it make my Tuesday. Need a bright, tangy, deeply autumnal spiced cup of black tea to pick you up on a tricky work day? Make an entire pot of this and drink the whole thing. Plus, vitamin C is great!

We’ll be doing more collabing with Erin, so stay tuned for other recipe pairings soon – and definitely check out our previous ones! Recipe below for the pound cake and recipe here for the absolutely stellar spiced blood orange tea! Also, fun side note – I definitely had to look up where to find “safflower petals” (an ingredient in Erin’s tea) and by happy accident realized that the bouquet I got this week had safflowers in it! If you’re into orange stuff, we have zero other recipes but not to worry! We’ll be trying our more in the near future now that I’ve come around on the whole avoiding-orange-flavored-things. If citrus is your vibe, check out these lemon ricotta cupcakes, or this kiwi lime tart, or this strawberry lemonade cake!

Recipe here for the Spiced Blood Orange Tea!

Print Recipe

Gluten Free Spiced Mandarin Pound Cake with Mandarin Glaze

This buttery gluten free pound cake is an explosion of sweet, floral mandarin orange, tempered with fall spices and topped with a bright mandarin glaze

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Cooling time2 hours hrs

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: bundt cake, cake, citrus, easy, glaze, gluten free, mandarin, mandarin orange, orange, pound cake, spiced

Servings: 16 people

Calories: 450kcal

Author: Amelia Farber

Equipment

• 10-cup bundt pan
• Electric mixer

Ingredients

For the pound cake:

• 1 1/2 Cups salted butter room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups white sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 Cup sour cream
• 1/2 Cup fresh squeezed mandarin orange or tangerine juice
• 2 tsp mandarin or tangerine zest
• 2 tsp orange extract
• 1 3/4 Cup gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum included (if your mix doesn't contain xanthan gum, add 1 tsp now)
• 1 Cup packed blanched almond flour
• 1/4 tsp each: nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon
• orange food coloring optional

For the glaze:

• 1/4 Cup mandarin or tangerine juice
• 2 Cups sifted powdered sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325° Fahrenheit and generously grease a 10-cup bundt pan with room-temp (not melted) butter and set aside (make sure there is plenty of butter in all of the bundt pan crevices). Make your pound cake. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the room temp butter, with the sugar until lighter and fluffy (about two minutes). Add in the eggs, vanilla, mandarin or tangerine juice and zest, orange extract, and sour cream, and continue to beat until fully combined. Then, using a spoon or spatula, mix in the flour, almond flour, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon and stir until combined.
• Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth top/shake the pan on the counter so that it’s even/settle into the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife or skewer inserted into the center of one side of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely before turning out (this will take a while if you're using a heavy-weight bundt pan).
• While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar and additional freshly-squeezed mandarin or tangerine juice until completely smooth (I use a metal teaspoon/cereal spoon). Once cake it cooled and turned out onto a plate or serving platter, pour the glaze over the cake using a spoon or small pitcher, and then serve!

Tag @sisterssansgluten and @basilandbeauty on Instagram if you snap a photo of your pound cake!

Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber