The flavour orange

I bought Diana Henry's Crazy Water, Pickled Lemon ages ago, drawn to the book by the evocative title, and because I have an enduring fascination with the cuisines and cultures of North Africa, Morocco, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Italy and the whole Mediterranean. But until yesterday I had yet to try one of the sensuous recipes she wrote up so beautifully.



The second impulse for this cake came from a blog I like, Souvlaki for the Soul, maybe because of the writer's Greek heritage. Peter G's "Intense Orange and Almond Cake" looked irresistible! And then I remembered Ms Henry's book has a similar recipe. The eternal perfume of oranges -- so seasonless I even crave them in winter -- married to the earthy crunch of ground almonds (and almonds are so good for your health too). What's not to like?



My recipe is adapted from both Peter's blog and Diana Henry's book. The cake baked for 1 hour and the top was wonderful and crunchy looking as you can see here. In fact, using a food processor to more finely mix the batter and oranges would result in a finer-looking cake, but I'm happy with the rustic, homey goodness I got. H and I had visitors yesterday evening, and I served out slices almost straight from the oven (I'm not too modest to tell you my guests said the cake was "very good").



I had my own slice today and a lovely snack it was too. When I make this cake again, I would probably use the food processor to chop up the oranges, and use caster sugar, for a nicer presentation. If I were bringing it to a party, I would dust it with icing sugar too.

Middle Eastern Orange and Almond Cake
serves 8

2 oranges, organic
3 eggs, room temperature
250g (90z) caster or granulated sugar
55g (2oz) plain flour, sifted
5ml (1 tsp) baking powder
200g (7oz) almond meal or flour
Optional: icing sugar for dusting

Method:
1. Boil the oranges for an hour in a saucepan, barely covered in water. Allow to cool and chop up coarsely (or process in a food processor). Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a nonstick 8in springform pan (or line with baking parchment).

3. Beat the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is pale and thick. Fold in the flour, baking powder, almond meal and oranges. Pour into the baking pan and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

4. Let the cake cool and turn out of the pan.

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Prefacing her recipe Ms Henry says: "I love making this. I'm so enthralled by the alchemy that can turn pureed boiled oranges into a sweet, moist cake."

I am too.