Do you have a cake hater in your life? Maybe you are a cake hater, although it seems unlikely if you are reading my blog that you are a cake hater. Anyway, here's what you do: invite your cake hater over for a dinner party soon and make this cake for dessert.
I actually get where cake haters are coming from. So much cake is...so bad. It's just too sweet, isn't it, just a mouthful of dull sugar and nothing more, with no appealing additions other than even-sweeter frosting (ugh) or maybe some fruit (great, more sugar). I remember going to weddings as a kiddo and thinking that wedding cake was the worst cake of them all, being the whitest, dullest, sweetest mess I'd ever tasted, thinking it must be shitty on purpose for some reason. I wasn't completely wrong to surmise that all of the adults sucking down beer and wine with their cake maybe were onto something.
So this is the most anti-wedding cake you could have, short of it becoming chocolate. It's super tangy, with almost a hint of interesting bitterness, like burnt sugar has. The brown sugar balances the bright citrus flavor so perfectly; I think it is one of the tastiest cakes I've ever made. It's moist and rich thanks to the fats from the oil and sour cream, but super fresh and tangy due to the 3-way grapefruit additions, the best of which is the smoky, caramelized, slightly bitter grilled grapefruit bits that stud the cake like tiny jewels.
Speaking of weddings, my first order of business after getting married last week has been finding ways of getting just a touch more use out of my wedding dress, hence the tulle background--that's her.
And look at those pretty tasting forks my friend Caroline gave me! Eeep!
Little pink spray roses are my favorite roses, and pastel blue is my favorite blue, so I made a kind of second wedding cake for myself with this one. I just happened to have this sugar paste rose wreath left over from a previous project and it turned out to fit so well on this cake.
hiiii
Now, onto baking. The first thing you need to do here is prepare your grapefruit. You are going to use all of one large grapefruit for this recipe, extracting as much grapefruity flavor as possible from one fruit. Of course, first we zest it, making sure, as always, to not zest too deeply, as the white pith under the skin is very bitter. For baking, zest citrus is light, short strokes so you end up with small pieces and not long creepy strings of zest.
Then, we're going to remove the fruit from half of the grapefruit (the other half will be juiced). This method is the best way of getting lovely citrus fruit segments for salads. I remember learning how to do this in a knife skills class I took years ago and besides learning how to break down a chicken, it was my favorite knife skill I learned there.
Just cut the top and bottom off to make a stable surface, then slice away the skin and rind, following the curve of the fruit, and trying your best to remove all the pith but as little fruit as possible. Then, just cut out the wedges with your paring knife. Grill for about two minutes on each side, just until they are browned but not burnt. They will break apart as you move them, which is fine. Remove bits from the pan and toss with a teaspoon of brown sugar and allow to cool. It won't seem like very much fruit but don't worry, it's the perfect amount.
And yes, you need a full teaspoon of salt, since as you know salt is the guy, not sugar, who counteracts excess bitterness best. Science! This recipe makes a small cake, just two 8" layers, so it can be easily doubled if you want a bigger cake. Which you do.
GRILLED GRAPEFRUIT & BROWN SUGAR CAKE
1 3/4 c. (201 g.) cake flour (White Lily)
1 3/4 tsp. (8 g.) aluminum-free baking powder
1 c. (226 g.) brown sugar & 1 tsp, divided
1/2 c. (113 g.) white sugar
1/3 c. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 tsp. fine sea salt or kosher salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 c. canola or vegetable oil
1/3 c. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
Zest of one grapefruit
Grilled grapefruit segments from 1/2 of a grapefruit (see below)
Whisk flour and baking powder together thoroughly in a small bowl and set aside.
Zest grapefruit into a large bowl. Cut grapefruit in half lengthwise (from top to bottom) and juice one half for 1/3 cup of grapefruit juice (if it doesn't make a full 1/3 cup, add water to complete it). Cut off rind from the other half as shown above and remove fruit segments with paring knife. Grill segments in a cast iron grill pan lightly brushed with butter for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned. Remove from pan and toss in 1 tsp. of brown sugar and set in fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8" pans and line bottoms with parchment.
Place sugar, salt, and grapefruit juice in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is mostly melted--do not allow to boil. Pour sugar mixture into a large bowl with zest. Add oil, vanilla, sour cream, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. If mixture is still hot, allow to cool for a few minutes before moving to the next step.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until smooth and lump-free. Repeat with the remaining 2/3rds, scraping the bottom of the bowl and making sure no flour lumps remain. Mix in eggs on low speed, one at a time, until fully combined. Fold in grapefruit bits with a spatula.
Divide batter between pans and tap on the counter to remove large air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or so until centers are fully set and spring back when pressed. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto cooling rack. Level cakes by slicing off their crown. Allow cakes to cool and rest, then fill, and frost.
so perfect!