Orange, Lemon and Almond Cake
This cake is a ray of sunshine to brighten up a cold, wet and blustery January day! It uses whole fruit, and can also be made with other citrus- it is particularly good with blood oranges when they come into season in a few weeks, or with clementines at Christmas.
It is gluten free, but if you are not bothered about the gluten content, you can use regular plain flour and baking powder.
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 large orange
1 unwaxed lemon
unsalted butter and gluten free flour for the tin
6 large free range eggs
220g golden caster sugar
250g ground almonds
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp orange blossom water
1/2 tsp salt
For the candied oranges:
1 orange sliced as thinly as possible
50g caster sugar
For the glaze:
4 tbspns marmalade warmed and pushed through a sieve
Method
Prick the fruits all over and microwave for 8-10 minutes until completely soft. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 190c/fan 170/gas mark 5. Butter a 30 x 10 x 10 loaf tin and line the base with baking parchment. Dust with flour, rotating the tin to coat it, and then tip out the excess.
Trim the cooled fruit of the stalk ends, and cut into pieces, removing any seeds. Whizz in a food processor to a puree. Whisk the eggs and sugar for a minute, and then fold in the remaining ingredients and the fruit puree. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is a lovely golden brown. Let it cool completely in the tin.
To make the candied oranges place the sugar and 50ml of water in a pan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the orange slices and simmer over a medium heat for 15 minutes until softened. Remove carefully and cool on baking parchment.
To finish the cake, remove it from the tin, brush all over with the marmalade glaze and arrange the orange slices on top.
Recipe adapted from Fiona Cairns Seasonal Baking
PS You may have noticed the non-appearance of Part 2 of the Christmas Cake recipe, which was to be how to ice and decorate your cake. I'm sorry about this, things got pretty hectic here at Rosehip HQ in December, and I'm afraid it had to be put on hold til next year!
