Golden Citrus Solstice Cake
Celebrate the solstice…
with our luminous, honey-sweetened citrus golden milk cake!
With warming aromatics and golden hued turmeric from our Sunshine Golden Milk and bright and zesty citrus—this is the perfect cake for welcoming the return of the light this winter solstice!
Golden Citrus Solstice Cake marries flavor, texture and healthful ingredients in a way that makes your spirit sing and your body feel deeply nourished and satisfied. It’s lightly sweetened with honey, and for a vegan version you can sub maple syrup for the sweetener and flax eggs for regular ones. This recipe may be made gluten-free or gluten-full!
Added bonus: this beautiful cake looks kind of fancy and feels extra special but is actually quite simple to make.
For the orange-y parts of the recipe—I used a combination of satsuma mandarins and navel oranges. The mandarins have a beautiful, full-bodied flavor and richer color for topping the cake, so if that’s doable for you I highly recommend!
I haven’t tried it yet, but my plan for the solstice is to bake this in my mini bundt pans and deliver to friends and neighbors. I’ll chop up the candied citrus topping more finely—and am hoping it will work just as well as in the loaf pan!
Ingredients:
3/4 C flour (all purpose or 1-for-1 gluten free)
1/2 C super fine almond meal
1 Tbsp + 2 Tsp Sunshine Golden Milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 C honey
3 tsp orange or mandarin zest
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C + 1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 C + 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange or mandarin juice
2 large eggs
Quick Candied Citrus Topping:
1/2 C water
7 thin slices of mandarins or oranges (~.25 cm width)
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp orange or mandarin zest
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8” x 4” loaf pan. My preferred fool-proof method is using butter followed by a dusting of granular sugar.
In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
In a medium bowl, mix the honey and citrus zest. If honey is crystalized, first liquify it using your preferred method (I use a mason jar bain marie). Add the vanilla, olive oil and citrus juice and whisk until homogenized. Whisk in the eggs one at a time.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, gently mixing with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
While the cake is in the oven, candy your citrus slices. Add all of the ingredients except the citrus slices to a wide bottomed pot or pan (big enough for each slice to lay flat in the pan without overlapping onto another slice). Heat on low until the honey is dissolved and then add citrus slices. Simmer the slices on the lowest possible setting for 20 minutes, carefully flipping them over once or twice. You want to end up with a tablespoon or so of syrup for drizzling, so if too much water has evaporated, add more at the end if need be.
When the cake is finished baking, place it on a wire rack to begin cooling. Gently remove from pan after 10-15 minutes. Arrange the candied citrus slices over the top of the cake and spoon drizzle the remaining syrup.
Slice and enjoy right away, or wrap well and store in the fridge until ready to serve. This cake is moist and will easily store for a couple of days. For a little something extra, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.