You will need:
- 1 medium orange.
- 6 oz, 175 g, butter or margarine, softened.
- 6 oz, 175 g, light muscavado or light brown sugar.
- 6 oz, 175 g, self-raising flour.
- 3 medium sized eggs.
- half a level tsp of bicarbonate of soda.
- 2 oz, 50 g, ground almonds.
- icing sugar for dredging.
Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5, 375 f, 190 C, 170 fan.
Grease and line a round shallow cake tin that is 9 inches, (23
cm), in diameter by 2 inches, 5cm deep, and grease the paper as
well to help the cake turn out of the tin more easily.
-
Take your butter or margarine and eggs out of the fridge about an hour before
you start making the cake to allow them to come up to kitchen temperature. -
Now you can either make the cake in your food processor, or if you don’t
have one, just use your blender or liquidizer to puree the orange, then an electric
hand mixer to make the cake instead. -
Cut the whole orange, skin, pith, flesh, into pieces. Remove any pips,
then whiz it in your processor, blender or liquidizer to a fine puree. Do
this a little at a time, using a pusher to help the bits of orange make contact
with the blades. It’s time consuming, so you may like to do it in advance,
storing the pureed orange in a small airtight container in the fridge. -
Add the butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, bicarbonate of soda and
almonds to the orange in the processor and whiz for 10 seconds until smooth. -
Alternatively, if you have pureed your orange in a blender or liquidizer,
beat your eggs in a separate bowl before adding them to all the other
ingredients including the orange, in a large mixing bowl. All you need
to do then, is whisk everything together for a couple of minutes.
This cake has a “soft dropping consistency”, (please see my section on making
cakes for more details). -
Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top with a flat
bladed knife. - Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the cake has risen and is golden brown.
Allow it to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, Before turning it out onto
a wire rack to go completely cold.
Dredge thickly with sifted icing sugar before serving.
This lovely moist beautifully flavoured orange cake keeps for a week in a
tin or airtight container.