Black Sesame + Blood Orange Sourdough Cake

Decided to make a cake that uses sourdough as the only leavening agent so I developed this recipe inspired by pineapple upside down cake and blood orange and black sesame seeds in my pantry. This isn't a very sweet cake, you can adjust the sweetness based on preference by adding more or less of the orange blossom syrup.

Dough: 

550g KA ap flour

50g coconut sugar

7g diastatic malt 

65g milk

4 eggs

4oz butter softened

100g active starter

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Syrup: 

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp orange blossom water

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Candied Orange Layer: 

1 blood orange very thinly sliced

1/4 cup sugar

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Mix all the dough ingredients minus the butter together in a bowl. I was able to just mix it all together with a wooden spoon and didn't need to use my mixer, but using a mixer would be easier here. Once all the ingredients are mixed, add in the softened butter and mix until the dough is smooth and resembles thick cake batter or very wet dough. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 2 hours then place in the fridge overnight. The next morning take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. While this happens, prepare your pan. I used a 9inch aluminum pot. I buttered the bottom and placed a 9inch circle of parchment paper over the butter, then spread a then layer of butter over the parchment paper. Then I sprinkled half of the 1/4 cup of sugar over the parchment, placed down the orange slices, and sprinkled the remaining sugar over them. I didn't grease the sides of the pot because I wanted to dough/batter to be able to travel up/stick to the sides as it rose. 

After the dough comes to room temperature, pour it over the orange sugar layer and let proof until almost doubled in volume. This took about 3 hours in my kitchen. In the meantime, boil the syrup ingredients together for about 5 minutes and set aside to cool. When the cake is proofed, bake at 400F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean or a thermometer placed in the center reads 210F.  Take it out of the oven and let it rest for ten minutes then take a fork and prick the surface. Brush on some of the simple syrup and let that soak for about twenty minutes, then flip the cake out of the pot, peel the parchment off to reveal the now candied orange layer. Let cool and enjoy.

Happy Baking!