Orange & Hazelnut Cake
This is a delicious, juicy cake with a strong orange flavour.
It’s influences come from ancient Middle Eastern, Portuguese and Spanish origins, but it is also an extremely healthy modern cake, suitable for gluten & dairy free diets.
Because the cake is so moist is doesn’t need anything more to serve with it than a dusting of icing sugar and a dollop of yogurt or creme fraiche.
This cake is perfect served as a piece of cake with coffee or warm as a pudding.
Ingredients
2 whole oranges – about 500g weight
5 eggs
170g caster sugar
170g hazelnuts
1 heaped tsp baking powder
- Put the oranges into a deep saucepan, add enough water to come half way up the pan and bring to the boil. Put a lid on the pan and simmer the oranges for about an hour and a half. Allow to cool.
- Whizz the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground.
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C/275F/Gas5. Line the base of a 20cm spring form cake tin with non stick baking parchment.
- Once the oranges are cool enough to handle, cut into quarters, remove any pips and stalks and whizz in a food processor to a fine pulp.
- Whisk the eggs and sugar together for about 5 min, until thick and moussy, then fold in the ground hazelnuts, baking powder and orange pulp.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50 to 60 min, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 20min, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Dust with icing sugar to serve.
Don’t worry if the cake sinks a bit in the middle, it’s perfectly normal!
