Winter Grapefruit Bundt Cake
2 Mar 2012
Tuesday evening I went to the Cinema Verde Film Festival downtown to see my friends in the short movie Florida Organic Growers made about the cash mob a few weeks ago. Part of the evening’s festivities was a potluck celebrating local produce, so I needed something that would be okay to sit out for a while with no refrigeration. Cake!
There are several cake-worthy local foods in season right now. Strawberries are the current darling, they’re everywhere. Sweet potatoes. Pumpkins are still here and there. And of course, citrus. Mmmm. Citrus.
And I just happen to have a whole basket of random oranges, tangerines and grapefruit from Henderson & Daughter Citrus lingering in the pantry.
Problem solved!
Winter Grapefruit Bundt Cake
modified slightly from this recipe, which can’t be anywhere near as good, since it’s made from those Texas grapefruits.
This recipe seems complicated but I promise, the extra steps are totally worth it. This cake is nice and light with no other flavorings to compete with that wonderful grapefruit scent.
1 1/2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 eggs, separated
2/3 c peanut or sunflower oil
2/3 c fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice
1 1/2 c demerara, evaporated cane juice, or any other unrefined sugar
2 tbl grapefruit peel, minced
Heat the oven to 350 and spray a Bundt pan with baking spray, or butter and flour carefully.
Pour one cup of the sugar in a mixing bowl and add the grapefruit peel. Rub the peel into the sugar with your fingers until the sugar is moist and the grapefruit smell is noticeable. Add the egg yolks, oil, and juice and beat until smooth. Then add the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients in until fully incorporated.
Beat the egg whites on high with an electric beater until they start to foam. Slowly add the remaining 1/2 c of demerara sugar. Beat until the egg whites make soft peaks when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.
Get a rubber spatula. Scoop about a half cup of the beaten egg white mixture into the batter. Slowly fold the beaten egg whites into the batter, folding until you can no longer see streaks. Then fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter a little at a time until it’s completely incorporated. Immediately scrape the batter into the bundt pan and place in the oven.
Bake for 40 minutes. The cake’s done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully turn onto a plate and let cool all the way before slicing.
I’m not a fan of icing so I served it with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
June 19, 2013 at 8:46 pm 
Mar 05, 2012 @ 18:33:07
Congratulations! Looks delicious.
Mar 07, 2012 @ 08:28:35
Thank you!
Mar 05, 2012 @ 18:48:21
I went to Tastespotting first, squee’d a little bit, and then clicked through from there to here just so I could say I had. :-D
I’m not sure when you actually discovered the site, but March 2008 is the first time you mentioned it. It’s played such a constant role in your growth as a foodie and food blogger, and been one of the common ties as we’ve forged this long-distance friendship (different from our previous almost-neighbors friendship). It’s awesome to see you join the contributors’ pool, and I know there will be lots more to come.
I can only get Texas grapefruit in the grocery store here, but I still have a couple of jars of marmalade I made from the grapefruits I carried back in my checked bags in September 2010. *laughs* Maybe when my baby orange tree starts to fruit (it’s been sprouting new leaves and flowerbuds all over the place in the last two weeks!) I’ll make a blood orange version of this…
Mar 07, 2012 @ 08:51:07
I really want to I WILL keep sending in photos. Now that one’s been accepted the whole process seems less daunting. The hardest part of this whole food blogging experience has been the photography! It’s funny… there are so many food bloggers who are excellent photographers but not very good writers. I feel like I’m a decent writer but a not-very-good photographer and that makes it much harder to get exposure. You have to have good photography.
Remember, pinch off the flower buds in the first year so it will develop stronger branches.
Mar 06, 2012 @ 10:23:59
Could you do this with strawberries? Crush them up and substitute them for the grapefruit juice? The thought of a strawberry cake just suddenly makes me all melty inside …
Alternately, have you run across any really good recipes featuring strawberry cake?
The chemistry/wet-dry ratio would be a little different between the strawberries & grapefruit.
I’m also thinking a very fine drizzle of glaze, maybe with subtle lemon undertones, would be awesome on a strawberry bundt cake.
Man, I wish I didn’t have so much to do this week. I would SO be messing around in the kitchen tonight … If I can get enough stuff done this week, I might very well spend a little time this weekend experimenting; I could totally take something like this to Gulf Wars.
Mar 07, 2012 @ 09:03:47
I honestly don’t see why not. Don’t add any sugar though! The cake is quite sweet and I think strawberries would be a bit sweeter than grapefruit juice. I bet this would work really well, you should try it!
The only way we eat strawberries other than fresh is barely cooked into sauce over pancakes with ricotta. I also really like strawberry shortcake but I make it with cream biscuits.
Mar 07, 2012 @ 10:57:01
I’ll give it a try & report back. ;=) Thanks for the thoughts!
3 Good Things – March 13, 2012 « Windrose Meanderings
Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:29:17
[...] left over …). Also made an experimental cake with fresh strawberries, based on my friend Andi’s recipe. It turned out GREAT, although the strawberry (instead of grapefruit) & lemon zest (instead [...]
Grapefruit cake « The Cooking Consortium
Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:40:04
[...] http://www.greenbasket.me/2012/03/02/winter-grapefruit-bundt-cake/ [...]
Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:59:18
made the bundt cake with strawberries (I haz a blender! It haz a liquify setting! Awesome!) and a little lemon zest to rub into the sugar. The batter had a really strong lemon/strawberry flavor, but in the finished cake, the lemon/strawberry was incredibly subtle. I love it a LOT. It came out tender, moist, and just the right density. And I was concerned, because I wasn’t sure I got the egg white/sugar mix quite right (I think I stopped beating it a little too early). I made a strawberry cream to go with it, but I think the cream is way too sweet, and will probably toss it. I love the gentle sweetness of the cake, it’s almost like a banana bread.
In fact, I may try this recipe with bananas, and I’m definitely gonna try it with apples and cinnamon. It’s kind of labor intensive (and you should see the pile of bowls and stuff I went through making it! LOL), but the end result is well worth it.
You won’t see this until after the war; I cut the cake up & am bringing it down with me, and I’m gonna try to save you a piece to try.
You ROCK!
Mar 19, 2012 @ 18:12:45
I was glad to see you and sorry I missed the cake!