Blood Orange & Amaretto Mascarpone Trifles

I’m going to be completely honest with you guys. This recipe was brought about by a disastrous cake failure. When planning for this post I had grandeur plans for a supremely moist, citrusy, and blush pink pound cake (hello, spring!) garnished with creamy mascarpone glaze and golden toasted almonds. Sounds pretty dreamy right? Well, things didn’t quite work out as planned, and obviously, this isn’t that cake. But I’m not one bit sorry about it. Because this dessert? It’s even better.

You see, I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the best desserts are born from our harshest lessons in the kitchen. Cake balls for instance. They’re always a crowd-pleaser, and they’re the easiest way to save a dried out cake. So, when I royally screwed up my dreamy pound cake – it was, I kid you not, heavy as a brick – I let myself take a moment (okay a few moments) to wallow in self pity, then I took a deep breath, put on my big girl baker pants, and began brainstorming creative ways to save it. And while I promise you that I did go back and tweak the pound cake recipe to a slight adaptation of a tried-and-true favorite (it’s a beauty all on it’s own), I just couldn’t manage to push these decadent little trifles out of my mind.

The base is a fluffy pound cake that falls on the lighter side of the pound cake spectrum due to the inclusion of baking powder in the recipe (traditionally, pound cake recipes do not include a leavening agent).  Prior to baking, blood orange zest is massaged into the sugar then creamed with softened butter, resulting in a moist, vibrant cake with bright, floral citrus notes and tinted a most perfect shade of springtime pink. The cake is then cut into small cubes and layered with ultra-rich, whipped mascarpone that is generously spiked with amaretto liqueur (you’ll want to eat it by the spoonful), as well as fresh blood orange segments and crunchy, toasted almonds.

Are you drooling yet?

Note that while we are on the tail end of citrus season, Moro blood oranges have still been in stock and reasonably priced at our local markets. If you can’t find them, try substituting a more widely available citrus like tangerines or even clementines. I also used a touch of blood orange syrup because I had some leftover from a champagne brunch and thought it would provide an extra boost of pink color, but you can substitute blood orange juice if you don’t have any on hand. Enjoy!