I keep telling little bunny never to follow any recipe point to point. I don't know if she completely understands what I mean, but everytime she is observing me cook she asks me 'Mama are you following the recipe?'. And almost always I have to tell her the truth which is 'Not exactly my dear'. I hate following recipes to be honest so it is strange that here I am posting another cake recipe! I believe in adding a personal touch to almost everything I do, I guess it gives me the pleasure of having broken the rules.And then I wonder from where little rabbit has that streak in her that calls for breaking every rule that I set for her :-)
Talking about cakes and recipes I met S last night for dinner who according to me is a master or mistress of baking. I think she makes some of the most amazing cakes in the world and is one of the best cooks I know. She slipped a small packet into my hands when I went to pick her up and told me to try it and let her know how it tasted. It was a kind of
streusel kuchen and she had added cranberries and Czech apricots which was grown in her friend's garden back in the small town of
Most and bottled for her to use :-) Bottled apricots reminded me of the salted pickled whole mangoes back in India. S had her own personal touch as I am sure that the original recipe could not have called for Cranberries. As always it was delicious, I think she is to blame for having converted me into a true cake lover. More about S and her cakes in another post, an amazing woman, one who truly inspires me.
So guys here is a lovely recipe of an orange almond cake or rather tart I would say. I love the fact that you use the entire orange in the cake, peel and all. I also like this cake particularly because there is no flour used at all. Yeah, a very unique cake and also very healthy - well minus the sugar. But again I personally like to use dark brown densely packed sugar rather than the chemically bleached white variety that I sometimes happily consume with large pots of coffee during a working day :-( So here you go. Make sure you have the following ingredients ready, and this time it is only 5 things you need!!!
1) 2 large oranges
2) 1.5 cups of brown sugar
3) 5 eggs - yeah makes it really yumm!!!
4) 2.5 cups of almond meal
5) 1 tsp of baking powder
- cook the oranges in boiling water and then drain and cool. Put it into a blender and puree until smooth, the whole fruit including the peel
- beat the eggs with the sugar until nice and creamy, add the pureed oranges, almond meal and baking powder. Mix carefully, not too much. For those of you living in Germany you get ready to use almond meal at the
Rewe supermaket, it is called Mandelpulver.
- pour into a greased baking pan and bake for almost an hour at 200 deg c in a preheated oven.
- once done keep it on a rack to cool
Your cake is technically ready but if you want to turn this into a kick a* orange almond cake then continue to read for a personal twist. Take half a cup of brown sugar, the rind of one orange and also the juice from the same orange. Boil and caremelize the mixture and pour this icing over the cooled cake. Now wait for the magic to happen, by letting it settle overnight. Next day you are ready to savor some deliciously moist orange almond cake. So go ahead break the rules my friends, add your own twist but try out this simple recipe and let me know what you think. Have fun!!!
