Orange syrup cake

Remember Jim Profit?? He was a bad, bad guy. I think he and Patty Hewes could go hand in hand with their cruelty. Come to think of it... Who am I kidding? No one could ever match Patty Hewes. :)

I had been meaning to make this recipe for months – the magazine I got it from (DH #35) is from November/2007!

The original calls for blood oranges but since I have never seen them in Brazil, I used regular oranges instead. I remember trying blood orange juice when I was in Berlin last year, it was so refreshing and good! Too bad I can’t find it here.

I don’t know if regular oranges would match blood oranges in this cake – if someone tries it, I’d love to hear it!

Gently cook the oranges in the syrup and try not to stir them too much, so they will look nice and pretty on the cake.

Orange syrup cake
from Donna Hay magazine

- metric and imperial measurements found in the magazine; I used my scale

4 eggs
1 cup (220g/7 ¾oz) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (150g/5 ¼oz) self-raising flour
150g (5 ¼oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (110g/3¾ oz) almond meal
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Sticky orange topping:
1 cup (220g/7 ¾ oz) caster sugar
½ cup (125ml/4 fl oz) water
2 large oranges, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. To make the sticky orange topping, place the sugar and water in a large non-stick frying pan (I used a regular stainless steel pan) over medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the oranges and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the oranges are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk for 8-10 minutes or until thick, pale and tripled in volume. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold through. Add the butter, almond meal and lemon zest and fold through.
Grease and double line the base and sides of a 20cm (8in) round cake pan with non-stick baking paper – make sure you use a deep pan and leave about 1inch (2.5cm) paper hanging out of it to hold the cake batter once it starts rising. Arrange the orange slices on the base and around the sides, reserving the syrup. Pour over the cake batter and bake for 50-60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Turn the cake onto a wire rack and spoon over some of the reserved syrup. Allow to cool before serving and serve the remaining syrup in a separate bowl.

Serves 8