It’s orange season and there are some amazing ones out there. Have you tried the Sumo orange? You can use any oranges for this cake, including mandarin and blood orange. I actually turned them into a Blood Orange Galette, which is delicious served with vanilla ice cream. This is not your typical caramel sauce. It’s made a little differently because this does not have cream. When you add cream to caramel sauce, it prevents the sauce hardening and keeps it pourable. For this cake, we don’t want that. We want it to harden in the pan, then as it bakes, it will soften with the heat and soak into the cake. When you’re making caramel sauce, the sugar can crystalize on the side of the pan. You don’t want this when you are making a caramel sauce because those crystals can make the sauce gritty. For this recipe, it doesn’t matter because the sauce will melt into the cake. When you turn the cake out, the caramel will sit on top of the cake and set and keep the orange segments in place instead of running all over if contained cream, then it would be a sticky orange cake. Not a bad thing, but I like how this turns out better. Cutting the orange segments To get the perfect pieces for the top of the cake, you first have to remove the peel and the pithe (white part). Don’t forget to zest the oranges first because it is impossible to do after. Cut the top and the bottom of the orange. Stand the orange up and start cutting from the top down following the curve of the orange. Do this all the way around until all the white and peel is gone. Holding the orange in your hand, use a small, sharp paring knife to cut between the membranes of the orange to cut out the segments. To quickly soften butter, place the butter still wrapped in paper (no foil) in the microwave on 50% power for 10 seconds, turn over and repeat until it feels softened.
