Orange And Almond Cake With Orange Syrup Food

WHOLE ORANGE CAKE - FLOURLESS

Steps:

• Boil 10 minutes: Place oranges in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium high heat. Boil for 10 minutes and drain.
• Repeat x 2: Put oranges back in the pot, cover with cold water and boil again for 10 minutes. Drain, then repeat once more (ie. boil oranges 3 x 10 minutes). Shortcut: Boil 40 minutes without draining, keeping an eye on water level. (Note 4)
• Chop: Rinse oranges, then cool slightly so you can handle them. Slice into 1cm / 1/4" slices then dice, removing any seeds. Cool completely.
• Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F (140°C fan). Grease and line a 23cm/9" cake pan with baking/parchment paper. (Note 5)
• Blitz oranges: Place chopped oranges in a food processor (Note 6). Blitz on high for 4 x 10 second bursts, scraping down the sides in between, until it's pureed into a marmalade consistency with only a few visible bits of rind remaining. It does not need to be completely smooth.
• Blitz in remaining ingredients: Add almond meal, eggs, baking powder and sugar. Blitz for 5 - 10 seconds on high until combined.
• Bake 60 minutes: Pour into prepared cake pans. Bake 60 minutes until the surface is golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Cool: Cool fully in cake pan. Unless using loose base pan, cover surface with baking paper to help you turn it out (cake is sticky so may stick to your hand and tear surface otherwise.)
• Serve: Decorate as desired - I used slices of fresh oranges, rind strips and sprigs of flowers. A dusting of icing sugar / powdered sugar is also lovely. Cut, then serve! See Note 7 for suggestions.

ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE WITH ORANGE SYRUP

Steps:

• Grease and lightly flour a 23cm springform cake tin.
• Place the whole oranges in a medium saucepan, cover with water and boil for 2 hours, topping up with more water as it evaporates.
• Remove the oranges.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cut the oranges into quarters and place in a food processor.
• Blend until smooth, then cool thoroughly.
• Place the egg yolks, orange liqueur and caster sugar in a large bowl and beat until smooth, then stir in the orange puree and mix well.
• Whisk the egg whites in a dry bowl until firm peaks form.
• Add the almonds and baking powder to the orange mixture, stir together well, then carefully fold in the eggwhites.
• Gently pour into the cake tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour.
• Cool the cake in the tin, then transfer to a serving plate.
• To make the syrup: place the orange juice, sugar and sauterne in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until reduced by half.
• Skim off any scum that forms on the surface.
• The syrup will thicken as it cools.
• To serve, cut the cake into wedges, top with the candied orange, or rind and drizzle the syrup over.
• Serve with cream.

MOROCCAN ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

Steps:

• Grate the rind from the orange, reserving some for decoration and squeeze the juice from one half.
• Place butter,orange rind and sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, gradually beat in eggs.
• In a seperate bowl, mix the semolina, ground almonds and baking powder, then fold in the creamed mixture with the orange juice. Spoon the batter into a greased and base - lined pan.
• Bake in a preheated oven @ 350F, for 30 to 40 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• To make the syrup:.
• Place the orange juice, sugar and cardamom pods in a pan over low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and let simmer for ca. 4 minutes or until syrupy.
• Turn the cake out into a deep serving dish.
• Using a skewer, make holes over the surface of the warm cake.
• Strain the syrup into a separate bowl and spoon 3/4 of it over the cake.
• Dust with confectioners sugar and cut into slices.

CLAUDIA RODEN'S ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

Steps:

• Wash the oranges and simmer them, unpeeled, in water to cover for 2 hours. Cool, cut them open and remove the seeds. Puree the oranges, including the peel, in a food processor.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Beat the eggs in a food processor or large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, including the orange puree, and mix thoroughly. Pour into a buttered and floured cake tin, with a removable base if possible.
• Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before turning out.

ORANGE & ALMOND CAKE WITH GLACE ORANGES & SYRUP

Steps:

• To prepare the oranges for the cake: Place the oranges into a large saucepan (I used a stockpot, but something the size of a Dutch Oven would do), cover oranges with hot water from the tap, place on a medium heat, and bring water up to boiling point.
• I had a problem with the oranges floating, so I placed a heatproof glass pie plate on top to keep them submerged.
• Reduce heat and simmer oranges for 40-50 minutes or until the skin is very tender - your fingernail should easily penetrate the skin.
• Check water from time to time and top up if necessary.
• Remove oranges from pan and allow to cool, then cut oranges into quarters, remove any seeds, and leave on a plate, uncovered, at room temperature, to dry a little for 1-2 hours.
• Now, unless you're going to make the cake immediately, place the orange quarters into a sealed container and store in the refrigerator until needed.
• To make the syrup: The syrup will keep so it can be made well ahead.
• Just place the orange juice, sugar and sauternes in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half.
• From time to time, and especially at the end, scrape off any scum that forms on the top.
• Pour into a heat proof jug or jar, cool, cover and refrigerate until needed.
• Note: the syrup is supposed to thicken as it cools, but don't expect a thick syrup.
• To make the glace oranges: Remove any seeds from the orange slices and arrange them (with the rind still on) in a large, shallow, heatproof container.
• Cover oranges with boiling water and allow to stand at room temperature overnight.
• The next day, drain the oranges.
• In a large frying pan, place the sugar, water and vanilla bean and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Now, add the orange slices in a single layer, and simmer, uncovered over a low heat for an hour.
• Remove oranges and arrange in one layer on a plate and cover with the syrup. Cover and keep in the refrigerator until you want to decorate the cake - I did this just prior to serving it.
• If you find, as I did, the syrup went toffee-ish and the oranges stuck to the plate after keeping, just whack it, uncovered, into the microwave for a minute or so to melt the syrup.
• To make the cake: Spray a 22cm (9") springform tin with a double layer of silicone (baking) paper.
• Preheat oven to 170°C.
• Now, put the boiled orange quarters (peel and all) into a food processor and pulse until quite smooth - you won't get it completely smooth, but do your best.
• Add the eggs and pulse again, trying to get the smoothest mixture possible.
• Add the sugar, the flour (if using), the baking powder and as much of the almond meal as you can without overloading your food processor and pulse until you have a smooth batter.
• If necessary, pour batter into a big mixing bowl and stir in the rest of the almond meal.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 170C for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in the centre, comes out clean.
• Allow to cool a little, then release the springform pan, and invert the cake onto a dinner plate and carefully remove the baking paper from the base and sides.
• Invert back onto another plate, allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate until needed.
• To decorate cake: Use your own judgement, but this is what I did.
• Pour a couple of tablespoons of the sauce over the top of the cake and smooth with the back of a spoon.
• Cut some of the glace orange slices into halves and arrange around the outside of the cake.
• Leave three or four slices whole, cut halfway through and then 'twist' to sit upright in a circle in the centre of the cake.
• Using a pastry brush, use the syrup from the glace oranges to glaze the sides of the cake - microwave the syrup briefly to bring it back to liquid consistency if necessary.
• Tuck some pretty flowers (I used daisies) amongst the oranges on top of the cake.
• To serve: Serve small slices (it's rich) with the syrup (cold or at room temperature) and a dollop of thick cream.
• Swear never to make this cake again!