orange and almond cake

If you're a bit of a scatterbrain like me, this cake is just perfect.  Because for one, you dont need to preheat the oven or keep the butter out to bring to room temperature or sift the flour.  It's amazing how easy this cake is to make. And all just before you start to make dinner. 

And even though I'm not a fan of warm desserts, I enjoy making and having this cake because it was easy to make and just wonderfully soothing. A bit like comfort food. It reminded me of my childhood. I guess it's because of all the spices in the syrup as Mom used to make a similar semolina cake. And the best part is the ingredients are not similar to regular cakes. There is no flour to begin with. Of course that doesn't mean it's gluten-free. It's not. Because bread crumbs come from bread which has gluten, so unless you're able to source gluten-free bread from which you can make breadcrumbs, this will remain a cake with gluten.

It's great as a winter cake and easily converted to a winter dessert with a dollop of mascarpone if you must. The syrup lends this cake a very luxurious mouth-feel. And of course the ground almonds makes it a dense and moist cake. And because I luuuurve alcohol in my desserts, I stepped it up another level by adding Cointreau to the syrup.  So if you've got an extra 10 minutes to kill (HA!!!) before you start making dinner, give this cake a whiz.

orange and almond cake

for the cake

• 40g dried breadcrumbs
• 200g caster sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200 ml sunflower oil
• 4 medium eggs
• Zest of one orange
• Zest of half a lemon

for the syrup

• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp orange juice
• 50g sugar
• ½ cinnamon stick
• 5 – 6 cloves
• 2 star anise
• 3 tbsp Cointreau

method
for the cake

1. Lightly grease a 21cm spring form cake pan with butter or cooking spray.
   In a bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and citrus zest until combined. 
   Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and combine well. 
3. Pour into the prepared tin and place in a cold oven.
4. Set the oven to 180 C and bake for 60 - 75 minutes until evenly risen and browned.

for the syrup

1. In a saucepan, combine all the syrup ingredients and slowly bring to the boil.
2. Continue to boil for 3 minutes without stirring.

Once the cake is baked, remove from oven and generously drizzle with syrup while still hot. 
Leave in cake pan for a few minutes to cool before serving.