Turmeric Citrus Snack Cake

A simple and vibrant snack cake, filled with earthy Lakadong turmeric, bright winter citrus, and tangy fresh ginger. Feel free to substitute any fresh citrus in place of the navel oranges–blood oranges, cara cara oranges, or grapefruit would also work beautifully in this recipe.

turmeric citrus snack cake

This recipe is sponsored by Living Roots USA. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses who support Gathered At My Table!

Hi! Hello! It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a recipe here on my blog. In case you are new around here (welcome!), I’ve spent the last couple of years working on growing my weekly newsletter where new recipes are delivered straight to your inbox every single week. (You can sign up for that HERE, if you’re interested). But over the last few months, I’ve been combing through old recipes from here on these old blog archives and I’ve discovered sometimes I really miss my old school blogging. I love this website dearly and I’ve spent about six years building it page by page and recipe by recipe.

This recipe was one I developed a few weeks ago with Jonali from Living Roots USA and while I may sound dramatic in saying this, the process was life-giving. Thanks to my tiny toddler sidekick, I’ve cut dramatically back on the client work that I take on and instead have spent the last year and half or so developing recipes with little baby hands grabbing and mixing, cramming all of my photo shoots into the very small nap time window each day, and writing and editing after bedtime or in stolen hours throughout the day. My days are full and I love it and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do creative work AND stay at home, but I would be lying if I said that there weren’t moments where I really miss having the time to dive in and get my hands dirty, both literally and creatively speaking.

When Jonali reached out to me, generously sharing her vision and spices with me over the phone, something sparked in my creative subconscious and I started brainstorming recipes that I was giddy about developing. A few weeks later, I received a little box of Living Roots spices in the mail. Living Roots is a small spice and tea company based in Los Angeles run by friends Jonali and John. Their spices are sourced directly from farmers in a “harvest to table” approach where they get to know farmers and their families and ensure that each spice and tea is cultivated with care and attention to detail all while ethically supporting indigenous farmers all over the world. The care and passion that Jonali and John have can be felt in every single thing that they do—you can hear it in their voices when they speak about their work and taste in their spices.

The Lakadong Turmeric is vibrant and earthy, rich and lush in color and flavor and it enhances the flavor of everything it is added to do. The Pampore Kashmir Saffron is fruity and sweet and I’ve used it in everything from our family Sicilian Chicken Soup recipe to ice cream and shortbread cookies. And the Tura Black Pepper is pungent and peppery, complementing the turmeric perfectly and bringing out sharpness in everything from steak au poivre to my morning fried eggs.

This cake was such a fun project for me—it’s simple and easy to make, using only a few bowls and a whisk and it feels like a burst of sunshine on a plate. There’s a ton of fresh winter citrus and tangy grated ginger, plus a few cranks of black pepper to really bring out the vibrancy of the turmeric.

It’s been a long time since I’ve fully been able to immerse myself in the creative process and this cake is not only delicious, but through the creating and testing and styling process of it, I bumped into a little bit of myself that I hadn’t seen in a while. I think that is what makes food and recipes and spices and all that goes with it so special—that a simple cake has the ability to showcase the hard work of women like P. Nongdkhar from West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India while also helping women like me capture little pieces of themselves again.

Yield one 9" cake

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

40 Min

Total time

55 Min

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Turmeric Citrus Snack Cake

A simple and vibrant snack cake, filled with earthy Lakadong turmeric, bright winter citrus, and tangy fresh ginger. Feel free to substitute any fresh citrus in place of the navel oranges–blood oranges, cara cara oranges, or grapefruit would also work beautifully in this recipe.

Ingredients

for the cake

• 113 g (½ cup) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Living Roots Lakadong Turmeric
• 100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar
• 54 g (¼ cup) brown sugar
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• the zest of one medium navel orange*
• 250 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ⅛ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 180 ml (¾ cup) buttermilk
• 80 ml (¼ cup) orange juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

for the glaze

• 1 medium navel orange, juiced and zested
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ tsp Living Roots Lakadong Turmeric
• 125 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
• 1-2 tbsp heavy cream

Instructions

to make the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine the unsalted butter and Living Roots Lakadong Turmeric. Cook, swirling frequently, until the butter has melted and turmeric is fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool to slightly while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, grated ginger, and orange zest. Use your fingers to rub the aromatics into the sugar until fragrant.
4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black pepper to the bowl with the sugars and whisk until well combined.
5. In a large measuring cup or bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, orange juice, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until no dry spots remain and you have a thick, smooth batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is deeply golden, the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the pan, and the center of the cake springs back when touched. Let the cake cool completely before glazing.

to make the glaze

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, orange zest, melted butter, and Living Roots Lakadong Turmeric.
2. Add the powdered sugar and whisk until smooth, adding 1-2 tbsp of heavy cream as needed until the glaze reaches a thick, pourable consistency.
3. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, using a spoon or an offset spatula to smooth it into an even layer. Garnish with orange slices if desired before slicing and serving.

Similar Recipes

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Fig and Cranberry Scones

Flaky and cozy scones, filled with bright cranberries and laminated with sticky fig jam. Served warm with butter, they are the perfect fall breakfast treat.

This recipe is sponsored by Crisco® as a part of their Holiday Baking 2023 Campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses who support Gathered At My Table!

When I first got into baking, I bought a giant copy of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery Cookbook. I’d been baking at home all throughout college, bookmarking my favorite food blogs and keeping a running sticky-note list of all of the recipes I wanted to try. And then I got serious. I bought this gargantuan cookbook and decided I was going to teach myself how to laminate dough and temper chocolate at home. I was optimistic to say the least.

The first recipe I made from the book was Cinnamon Honey Scones—plain scones with a homemade cinnamon honey butter streaked throughout in a tie-dye fashion. I made them once and instantly felt like a professional baker. So I made them again. And again. I don’t actually remember making many more recipes from that book that year because I just made scones. As I started to feel confident in my baking ability, I began to experiment. Cinnamon honey scones turned into bacon cheddar scones, which turned into feta and green onion scones. Was this the recipe that changed my entire career trajectory? Possibly.

I still use Thomas Keller’s scone recipe as a base today, though I’ve tweaked it many times over the years to suit my mood or my flavors. This year, it’s taking a fall spin with these Fig and Cranberry Scones, perfect for all of your holiday brunches and gatherings this season.

how to make fig and cranberry scones

The key to a good scone is cold fat and lots of it. In this recipe, we are using four different types of fat, each with a different role, to help ensure maximum tenderness. We’re using a little bit of cold, grated butter for flavor, but the real work horse in this recipe is Crisco® All Vegetable Shortening. Shortening, like butter, is a solid fat, but unlike butter, it is made up of 100% fat. This is good in many baking applications because there is no water content, it helps provide flakiness without the spread. Shortening is super versatile, plant-based and its high melting point helps create flaky layers. We are also using heavy cream and sour cream, to provide moisture and tenderness.

The best part of this recipe are the mix-ins. We fold dried cranberries into the dough and then laminate fig butter into each flaky layer, threading layers of flavor throughout the scones.

the importance of chilling and freezing

For a baked good that hinges on the solidity of fat for it’s rise and tenderness, chilling and freezing are important. Like biscuits and pie dough, the colder the better. We chill the scone dough before cutting to allow the fats to re-harden and allow the flour to properly absorb the moisture. Then, after slicing the scones into triangles, they are frozen completely and baking off from frozen. This will prevent spreading and flat, underwhelming scones.

Yield 12 scones

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

1 Hour

Cook time

30 Min

Inactive time

14 Hour

Total time

15 H & 30 M

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Fig and Cranberry Scones

Flaky and cozy scones, filled with bright cranberries and laminated with sticky fig jam. Served warm with butter, they are the perfect fall breakfast treat.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups (438 g) all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp Clabber Girl baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold and grated
• 1/2 cup (113 g) Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening, cubed
• 1/2 cup (113 g) heavy cream, plus more for brushing the tops
• 1/2 cup (113 g) sour cream (or whole milk plain yogurt)
• 5 oz (150 g) dried cranberries
• 4 tbsp fig butter
• demerara or turbinado sugar for topping

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
2. Add the cubed Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening and work in using your fingertips until the shortening is broken down into pea-sized pieces. Add the grated butter and mix that in as well until all of the fat is in small pieces and the mixture is crumbly.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the heavy cream and the sour cream. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the creams. Use a rubber spatula to stir, just until the liquid is incorporated. Gently fold in the cranberries.
4. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead for 1-2 minutes, just until cohesive and no flour spots remain. Pat the dough into a thick rectangle, about 8x10 in size.
5. Spoon two tablespoons of the fig butter onto the surface of the dough rectangle and smooth into a thin layer using an offset spatula. Gently fold the dough in half, sandwiching the fig butter inside. Rotate the block 90°, pat back down, and repeat with the remaining two tablespoons of fig butter.
6. Wrap the block, with the fig butter inside, tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
7. When the scone dough is very cold, remove it from the plastic wrap and use a sharp knife to cut six equal squares from the rectangle. Slice each square in half diagonally so that you have 12 triangles. Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until solid, at least two hours, preferably overnight.
8. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F. Arrange the frozen scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet leaving about 2" of space between each scone. Brush the tops of the scones with a little bit of heavy cream and sprinkle them with a crunchy sugar.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the outsides are deeply golden. Serve warm.

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Strawberry Olive Oil Cake

The simplest of snack cakes—a soft sour cream and olive oil cake studded with sweet, fresh strawberries.

In case you’ve missed it, I have spent the last month harping on and on about the beautiful, perfect strawberries that I picked at a local farm. I filled a flat with warm summer berries, ate a significant number on the drive home, and then I got to work. I made strawberry preserves, fresh strawberry ice cream, and this cake.

This was a whim recipe. I had planned on the preserves and ice cream, but quickly realized that I still had a bounty of berries, so I thumbed through Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Cakes to see if I could riff on one of her recipes. This cake is as simple as it gets—extra moist from the olive oil and sour cream, studded with a layer of sweet berries. We spent a few days cutting off a little sliver every time we walked through the kitchen. It’s the perfect, low-effort summer cake.

how to make a strawberry olive oil snack cake

Guys, this is truly the easiest cake around. You only need a handful of ingredients (most of which you probably have on hand), it only takes one bowl, and the adaptations are endless.

You’ll need:

Sugar: Granulated sugar for sweetness, plus a little more to create a crunchy layer on top of the cake. You can play with demerara or turbinado sugar for the topping for an extra crunch.

Eggs: Two large eggs help provide both moisture and structure for this recipe.

Sour Cream: I love baking with sour cream because it adds tenderness, flavor, and density to my cakes. You can sub in greek yogurt, ricotta, or even créme fraîche if you’re feeling fancy.

Olive Oil: You want a good grassy olive oil for this cake. The olive oil flavor pairs so well with the strawberries, and since it’s an oil-based cake, you know it will be extra moist.

Vanilla: I used the seeds scraped from a vanilla bean for this recipe, but you could use vanilla bean powder, paste, extract.

Flour: Just simple all purpose flour, though if you’re feeling experimental, subbing in 25% spelt flour would be nutty and lovely.

Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Baking powder is used for leavening here, while the baking soda helps to counteract the acidity of the sour cream. If you’re interested in learning more about the difference between the two—read this.

Strawberries: The real star of the show. I used warm, freshly picked berries for this recipe because the flavor will really shine. Slice them thinly to prevent sogginess, or sub in black, blue, or raspberries.

Yield one 9" cake

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

50 Min

Total time

1 H & 10 M

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Strawberry Olive Oil Cake

The simplest of snack cakes—a soft sour cream and olive oil cake studded with sweet, fresh strawberries. Adapted from Yossy Arefi's book Snacking Cakes.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar, plus 2 tsp for sprinkling
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup (220 g) sour cream
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cup (160 g) all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 160 g strawberries, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a 9" cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until frothy.
3. Add the sour cream, olive oil, and vanilla bean seeds and whisk again until smooth and homogenized.
4. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk again until just incorporated and no flour streaks remain.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with the sliced strawberries. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tsp of sugar and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top of the cake is deeply golden brown and the center is set.
6. Let the cake cool completely in the pan. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Similar Recipes

Pear and Cardamom Snack Cake

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Roasted Grape and Olive Oil Cake

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