Snow is melting. Weather is warming. Colorful and fragrant citrus fruits are feasting your eyes when you walk in the produce aisle at grocery store. Spring is finally here!

And I couldn’t help but picked up some vibrant blood oranges and pretty limes before I went home and found in my mail box the lovely Simply Citrus cookbook by my fellow Canadian blogger Marie Asselin. What a happy day!

What an adorable petite cookbook! Simply Citrus is a sunny, beautifully photographed book contains 60 recipes using a variety of fresh citrus fruits, including lemons, pomelos, oranges, limes, mandarins, kumquats, grapefruit, and citrus products such as yuzu juice, orange blossom honey, and preserved lemons in a variety or appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes, desserts, and drinks.

Any citrus fruits you can think of, Marie got it all covered in this gorgeous cookbook. As much as I love baking and making desserts, I’m also very excited about her savory recipes. My first attempt will be orange sesame falafel with spicy tahini sauce. Then the colorful roasted beet, kumpquat and fresh mozzarella salad, caramelized lemon and fennel risotto… so many inspirations! I think my summer backyard parties are all set!

With some beautiful blood oranges on hand, I decided to adapt one of the recipes in Simply Citrus, orange, date and walnut cake. I replaced the orange juice with blood orange juice and skipped the date soaking process. A very simple recipe that yields an amazingly moist, fragrant and flavorful cake.

I’m excited to give away a copy of this lovely cookbook to one lucky reader. Simply leave me a comment below telling me one of your favorite citrus fruits before March 13, 2018 (Tuesday) midnight PST. You can also tag a friend, follow Oh Sweet Day! and follow Marie on Instagram for extra entries. One lucky winner will be selected at random and announced on this post.

*** Congratulations to Cassie Hendry, the winner of Simply Citrus by  Marie Asselin. Thank you all for participating! ***

Ingredients (one loaf):
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cloves.
In a bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.
Beat in vanilla.
Add half of the flour mixture, and stir just to combine.
Stir in the orange juice, followed by the remaining flour mixture.
Fold in the dates and walnuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove it from the pan and let cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Simply Citrus by Marie Asselin, reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith.