Rachel's recipes: Orange & almond cake
Sometimes I make an orange syrup, pierce the cake with a skewer and see how much it absorbs. I have also covered it in a cardamom flavored dark chocolate ganache for a birthday cake, which was a divine combination indeed. Sometimes I eat it for breakfast with strong tea. Sometimes I have a nip of sherry with it vicar. I haven’t adapted the recipe for lemons but perhaps I should? It would suit lemon and lavender flavoring well.
The cake is one of those naturally gluten free cakes which I like. Although I do bake quite a few gluten free items, the recipes that never relied on wheat flour in the first place are (naturally) always better!
Before the “How To”, a quick word on quantities and a quick math lesson. When assessing recipes and wondering if your battered old cake tin will accommodate the cake mix, whip out your calculator/ flex your excel skills! The recipe below is for a 20 cm circular tin... Say the sides are 4cm (and this is a mousse cake method so it will not rise on cooking)…we need the volume, so first the base area ..that's pi x radius squared ie 3.142x10x10 = 314 cm squared. And now the volume …multiply by the height…so we have 314x 4 = 1257 cm cubed of cake mix. So if you had a square tin that was 18cm x 18cm x 4cm that would give you a volume of 1296 cm cubed and work out fine.
INGREDIENTS for a circular 20cm cake tin
1 orange plus the juice it was boiled in
3 Eggs
125g Ground almonds (I blitz them in a blender and I often use almonds with the skins on)
65g polenta (“malai”)
120g Sugar (I have used honey but you need to increase the almonds as this is quite a liquid mix to begin with)
a pinch of saffron
HOW TO
Wash and boil the orange unpeeled, in water to cover for 1 1/2 hours or until it is very soft. Let cool then cut open, remove the pips and turn into a puree in a food processor adding the water that is left from the cooking pan – approx. 75ml of cooking juice.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until they are foamy. Really do keep whisking until they leave a trail from the beater.
Fold in carefully, so as to just amalgamate the ingredients but not knock out all the air from the mixture. Pour into a cake tin with a removable base that you have buttered or oiled.
Bake in a preheated moderately hot 160C convection/ 180C non convection oven for about 1 hour. Check by inserting a skewer – it should come out clean. If it is still very wet, leave it in the oven for a little longer. Cool in the tin before turning out. (I once was in a hurry and turned it out when it was still hot, burnt my fingers and dropped the entire creation on the floor…so please people! “do as I say not as I do.”
By Rachel Sargent, Guest Writer
Rachel Sargent is owner of The London Street Atelier, which organizes cookery classes, private dinners and offers catering. More about it here.
(photo credits: Rachel Sargent)