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.

Turmeric Citrus Snack Cake
Yield one 9" cake
Author Anna Ramiz
Prep time
15 Min
Cook time
40 Min
Total time
55 Min

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.
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Grapefruit Poppy Seed Cake with Bay Leaf Glaze: Bundt-Muffins and a Loaf!

grapefruitbundts4.jpg

I don’t know about you, but it has a been a week over here! Last week, I went to plug my external hard drive into my computer and it started making a very suspect clicking noise. It refused to show up on my computer and when I tell you that my heart dropped into my stomach, I am not exaggerating. I spent the next few hours unsuccessfully trying to get my computer to read my hard drive, followed by a few days of anxious hand-wringing and lots of tears. Friends, it’s gone. My pictures from the last three years. All of the typed copies of my recipes. Invoices and business information. It’s all gone. (I’m still planning on sending my hard drive away to a magical technologically-advanced person in hopes that they can recover all of my data, but that’s a pricey expense, so at least for now, it’s all gone.) It’s been a lot to wrap my head around and part of me feels a little like I’m starting over completely, which is a very scary thing. I’m very thankful that I run this here blog, where all of my recipes are saved on the internet. I’m also thankful that I have a plethora of notebooks full of scribbled recipes. I’m extra thankful that I’d already uploaded a bunch of images for the freelance projects I was working on and that I use a design website for a lot of my invoicing. All of that being said, losing all that you’ve created over the past three years is very emotionally-taxing and calls for cake.

So I’ve been trying to focus on things I can control, prying my eyes away from my computer and getting back to baking new things. These cute little bundt-muffins have been the perfect distraction this week. I set out to make little bundt cakes, but slightly over-filled my molds. When I took the cakes out of the oven, they had risen into perfect little muffin tops that I couldn’t bear to get rid of, so here we have bundt-muffins—the newest breakfast cake you didn’t know you needed. This cake recipe is also the most versatile I’ve ever made. In addition to 12 little bundt-muffins, it makes an entire loaf cake. Or you can make a bunch of bundt-muffins and no loaf cake. Or you can make two loaf cakes! Or you can make just plain muffins, no bundt. Or you can even try baking it in a 9x13 pan! SO MANY OPTIONS. Whatever combination brings you the most joy, I’m here for it.

A few practical notes: You can sub the grapefruit for any citrus you have on hand and the bay leaves for another hearty herb or flower. While I love the grapefruit-bay leaf flavor combo, a lemon rosemary pairing would be delightful, as would an orange-bay leaf or lime-coconut duo. As always with my recipes, I encourage you to play around a bit.

grapefruit, loaf cake, bundt, citrus, cake, baking
cakes and pies
Yield: Makes 12 miniature bundt-muffins + 1 loaf
Author: Anna Ramiz
Grapefruit and Poppy Seed Baby Bundt-Muffins (+ Loaf) with Bay Leaf Glaze

Grapefruit and Poppy Seed Baby Bundt-Muffins (+ Loaf) with Bay Leaf Glaze

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 20 M

Ingredients

for the cake
  • 1 cup +2 tbsp (250 g) buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup (130 g) whole-milk greek yogurt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/3 cup (280 g) granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs, at room temperature
  • Juice of 1/2 of a large grapefruit
  • Zest of a whole large grapefruit
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp (460 g) all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp poppy seeds
for the glaze
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 bay leaves (dried)
  • 1 1/2 cups (180 g) powdered sugar
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Grease 12 miniature bundt pans with butter and dust with flour. Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
  2. In a large measuring cup, stir together buttermilk and yogurt. Add baking soda and set aside while you prepare the rest of the batter. (The mixture will get foamy, it’s just the acid reacting with the baking soda.)
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds. Set aside.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar. Beat for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the grapefruit zest and vanilla and mix again to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  5. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, followed by the grapefruit juice.
  6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk in 3:2 increments- 1/3 dry, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 dry, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 dry. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and fold batter a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure that the mixture is combined and homogenous.
  7. Place just under 1/2 of the batter into a piping bag and pipe into the prepared bundt pans, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown, and then cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack.
  8. While the miniature bundts are baking, pour the remaining batter into the loaf pan and smooth with an offset spatula.
  9. Turn the oven temperature down to 350°F and bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20-30 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.
to make the glaze
  1. Combine heavy cream and bay leaves in a small saucepan. Turn heat to medium low and bring cream to a simmer. When hot and just starting to bubble, remove the cream from the stove and cover. Let steep for 30 minutes, then strain out bay leaves.
  2. Place powdered sugar and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in 6-8 tablespoons of the steeped cream, adding more by the tablespoon to reach your desired consistency. Drizzle over muffins and loaf immediately.

Notes:

You can sub the grapefruit for any citrus you have on hand and the bay leaves for another hearty herb or flower. While I love the grapefruit-bay leaf flavor combo, a lemon rosemary pairing would be delightful, as would an orange-bay leaf or lime-coconut duo. As always with my recipes, I encourage you to play around a bit.


Did you make this recipe?
Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable