With caramelized honey and fresh rosemary, this blood orange upside-down cake is exactly the citrusy dessert you need! This cake turns out light, fluffy, and moist - no cake mix necessary. The blood oranges add an effervescent brightness while the rosemary grounds the whole cake with an earthy freshness.
In a saucepan combine the sugar, water, honey, and rosemary. Turn the heat to medium and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the blood orange slices and allow to simmer on low for an additional 5 minutes or just until the oranges begin to soften, but are not falling apart.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 C°)
Grease a 10” springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Make sure to grease the parchment paper, too. Place it on a baking sheet and set it aside.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl combine the zest and juice of the blood oranges with the buttermilk. Set aside.
Using your hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low add in the vanilla, eggs (one at a time), and rosemary. Once incorporated turn the mixer off and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl making sure there aren’t any unmixed portions in the bottom.
With the mixer on low add the buttermilk and flour mixtures to the butter and sugar mixture by alternating between flour and buttermilk until both are gone. Mix until evenly distributed.
Using the orange slices from the syrup, begin to assemble the orange layer. Starting at the center of the springform pan lay down a single orange slice flat. Layer a circle of oranges around the first orange working from the central orange slice to the edges of the pan. Make sure to overlap each orange and each layer.
Spoon two tablespoons of the simple syrup evenly over the oranges. Reserve the remaining syrup.
Pour the batter into your prepared springform pan. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. *Note, bake on the cookie sheet previously mentioned as the syrup mixture may leak.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes run a knife around the edge of the pan to make sure the cake is free from the sides.
Release the springform and carefully flip it over onto a wire rack and allow it to cool for another 30 minutes.
Drizzle the cake with leftover syrup before serving.
Notes
Use different citrus fruits besides blood oranges if you have something else readily available. Other possible options are regular oranges, Cara Cara oranges, mandarin oranges, tangelo, grapefruit, or a mixture!
If you don't have fresh rosemary, dried rosemary will also, just cut the amount in half. Fresh or dried thyme is another option.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute with whole milk and 1 tbs lemon juice or vinegar, or plain yogurt at a 1:1 ratio.