This cake prepared from cooked oranges is incredibly moist with a slight bitterness that’s a welcome change in a cake. I like it with a mix of cream and yoghurt. I'm not quite sure who John is, but many years ago I found this recipe amongst my mother's collection of recipes. I tried it out and I was hooked!

Ingredients

• 2 large oranges, unpeeled
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tblsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 x 70 gram packet ground almonds
• icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Put the unpeeled oranges into a saucepan. Cover with water and simmer for 1 hour. Drain and leave until thoroughly cold.
2. Cut into quarters, remove the pips and place in a food processor and process until finely pulverised. Add the eggs, sugar and lemon juice and process for 1 minute.
3. Add the baking powder and ground almonds and pulse only to mix. Do not over process.
4. Pour into a well-greased, and lined 23cm cake tin. Bake at 180ºC in the middle of the oven for 50-60 minutes until golden in colour and a cake skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool.
5. Dust with a thick layer of icing sugar. Heat 2-3 metal skewers over a gas flame and when red hot, drag them through the icing sugar to make toffee stripes or a diamond pattern. Serve with whipped cream.

Cooks Tips

To make this a little nuttier, slightly toast 2 packets of the almonds until they are just golden over a moderate heat in a frying pan, tossing regulalry.