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Nigella's Almond and Orange Cake

Ah, this cake! This cake took me two attempts to master because it turns out it wasn't a good idea to buy the smallest cake tin (although it made sense at the time) and fill it with the all the batter you have. Who knew there was actually a reason why chefs tell you the utensils they use! But I've learned my lesson now and I don't use all the batter in the same cake tin - I use the leftovers to make around 3 muffins to enjoy for breakfast.

Without further ado, here's Nigella Almond and Orange cake and here is the recipe for it - below it will have the slight modifications I made because I rarely have oranges in the house and I don't have orange blossom water.

picture from last year and I will replace it soon (I made the cake today for my neighbour to enjoy for Christmas with her family and forgot to take a pic)

This cake tastes like winter holidays and I usually make it a couple of times each December - there's something about oranges and Christmas that's quintessential to Christmas for me. It's a simple cake to make and it's a crowd pleasure - never met anyone who did not love it from the first bite. It also makes for a great coffee companion.

Ingredients:

  • 225 g soft unsalted butter (and more for greasing - I also used salted and made no difference, but today I had unsalted butter in the fridge!)
  • 200 g sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 50 g flour
  • 180 g almonds
  • 2 ml almond essence (in my country essences are sold in tiny 2 ml bottles)
  • 4 ml orange essence
  • icing sugar (to decorate)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease your cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar using a stand-mixer (hand-held should work too, but I have a stand because I am too clumsy to be trusted with a hand-held one - been there, done that, cleaning a whole kitchen is no fun). Then add the egg one by one, together with a spoon of flour. When everything is incorporated, add the rest of the flour.

Ground the almonds in a food processor - you can also buy ground almonds already, but I always forget - plus I like the texture variety you get by grinding your own.

Add the ground almonds to the mixture and continue mixing, then add the essences and combine everything. The batter will look very weird - not too liquid, but not too batter-like either. It's okay. 

Pour the batter in your tin. I cannot tell you how I decide how much to put in my small tin - I just eye it and hope for the best. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes. If the middle is still liquidy, but the top gets too brown, cover with tinfoil and continue baking. I test it a bunch of times with a toothpick (because first time it was completely raw in the middle). Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and continue cooling on a rack.

Before serving or gifting it, dust it with icing sugar using a small sieve. Apparently it keeps well for a day or two if wrapped nicely in tinfoil once it's cold - but it's always eating in one day, so I never got to test that part.

my neighbour sent me this picture - the cake did not resist 'till Christmas Eve!

🍰 Source: Nigella's website, but it's also published in her cookbook How to Eat.

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