2 | 52 Grapefruit Pound Cake

After the holidays is before the celebration.

That's what it always feels like when my grandma's birthday is coming up on January 4th, so shortly after Christmas and New Year's.

This year I wanted to bake something that could easily be offered to visitors (no cutting, no plates, no mess) so I looked for a cake that could be baked in those cute little paper mini loaf pans.

When I ask my grandma what kind of cake she likes, she always says that she doesn't care as long as it involves a fruity flavor and is not dry.

Browsing Pinterest, this is what I decided on:

2 | 52 Grapefruit Pound Cake

From Cooking Light Magazine (Jan 2012) via Taking On Magazines

250 g (2 cups) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

335 g sugar (1 2/3 cups) sugar

85 g (6 tablespoons) butter, softened

170 g (6 ounces) cream cheese (reduced fat)

2 large eggs

60 ml (1/4 cup) canola oil

2 tablespoons grapefruit peel, grated

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

180 ml (1/2 cup) milk

180 ml (1/2 cup) fresh grapefruit juice

160 g (1 1/4 cups) powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F).
• Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. 
• Mix sugar, butter, and cream cheese in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in oil, grapefruit peel, and vanilla.
• Alternatingly, add flour mixture and milk to batter. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 70 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Let cool.
• Bring grapefruit juice to a boil. Cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons. Cool slightly and stir in powdered sugar. Drizzle over cake.

My modifications:

I don't have canola oil at home so I used olive oil instead. I've done it before in other cake recipes and it has never been problematic flavor-wise.

I didn't cook the frosting but mixed it as always: powdered sugar in cold liquid. Worked well and still had a good flavor.

The taste:

I really loved how moist this cake was! And the flavor in general was very good. BUT.

The problem - I think - was the grapefruit peel. It tasted so unbelievably bitter that the cake had a sharp taste that almost burned my mouth. I kid you not. And it definitely wasn't in the frosting with just the juice but in the batter.

Additionally, while it tasted nice and citrusy, you couldn't taste that it was grapefruit. So next time I will just make it with orange, lemon or lime. I've never had these peel problems with those citrus fruit.

What's your grandma's favorite cake?

40/52 Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake

Doesn't the name of this cake already give you a good feeling?

That's what it did to me when I stumbled upon the recipe a while ago.

Fresh, light, citrussy grapefruit meets heavy, green olive oil - how much more intense can it get?
At least that's what I thought...

I decided to make this cake to bring to work to celebrate my birthday. To make it easier and prettier, I chose to bake small, individual cakes so that everybody could have one.

Please do read all the way to the end of the post. "The taste" should be an especially interesting (and surprising) read today.

Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake

Adapted from The Yellow House

1-2 grapefruits, depending on the size

200 g (1 cup) sugar

about 2 tablespoons buttermilk (or plain yoghurt), amount depending on size of grapefruit

3 eggs

160 ml (2/3 cup) olive oil

140 g (1 3/4 cups) flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the glaze:

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

grapefruit juice

• Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
• Zest the grapefruits into a bowl. Add sugar and combine well to let the grapefruit flavor the sugar.
• Squeeze half a grapefruit (or more, if you have very small grapefruits) into a measuring cup. Add buttermilk or yoghurt to make 160 ml (2/3 cup). Add to bowl with sugar/zest mix and whisk well. Whisk in the eggs and olive oil.
• In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Slowly stir into wet ingredients until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan (loaf or bundt) and bake for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before glazing.

• For glazing, take cake out of pan. Squeeze other grapefruit half and mix powdered sugar with grapefruit juice. Take small amounts of juice and stir well to reach the perfect glaze consistency. Use a spoon of knife to glaze the cake evenly.

My modifications:

I only used all-purpose flour instead of a mix of all-purpose and whole weat flour.

For the glaze I only used powdered sugar instead of a mix of brown and powdered sugar. I made this one first, as suggested in the original recipe, but didn't like it. Who wants to bite on the brown sugar pieces that don't dissolve? I don't so I went back to the classic glaze with just powdered sugar.

As I said above, I made small, individual cakes so the baking time went down to 20-25 minutes. And of course I didn't take them out of their paper pans for glazing.

The taste:

Moist, citrussy, and veeeeery good!

BUT - and this was a huge disappointment to me - they taste like your "ordinary" lemon cake. And trust me, I had all me colleagues to confirm this. After taking the first bite, they ALL said "Mmmh, lemon cake". Maybe it was my grapefruit. Maybe it just wasn't grapefruity enough. And it is just a citrus fruit after all, just like lemon.

As for the olive oil, you can taste it a teeny, tiny bit. But only if you know that it is in there...

Sorry for not showing you the glazed version. It was very late when I glazed them and then they all went to work with me...

Any recipes you tried that did not meet your expectations at all?