Whole orange cake with wine syrup

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 3 large (about 250g each) oranges
• Melted butter, to grease
• 5 eggs
• 315g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
• 200g (2 cups) almond meal
• 75g (1/2 cup) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 375ml (1 1/2 cups) botrytis-style dessert wine (none in Jakarta, so I used sweet sherry...great)
• Double cream, to serve

Method

1. Place 2 oranges in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over high heat. Drain. Return oranges to the pan and repeat process (this will reduce the bitterness of the peel). Return oranges to the pan once again and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, adding more water when necessary to keep oranges covered, for 1 hour or until oranges are very tender. Drain. Set aside for 2 hours or until cooled to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base with non-stick baking paper. Cut oranges into quarters. Remove the white cores and any seeds. Place in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.
3. Use an electric beater to whisk the eggs and 215g (1 cup) of the sugar in a large bowl until thick and pale. Use a metal spoon to stir in the orange mixture. Add the almond meal, flour and baking powder, and stir until just combined. Pour into the prepared pan and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
4. Meanwhile, use a zester to remove the rind from the remaining orange. (Alternatively, use a vegetable peeler to peel rind from orange. Use a small sharp knife to remove white pith and cut into very thin strips.) Juice the orange and place in a medium saucepan along with the rind, wine and remaining sugar. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Cook, without stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly. Remove from heat.
5. Turn cake onto a wire rack over a baking tray. Spoon the hot syrup and orange rind over the warm cake. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Cut cake into wedges and place on serving plates. Drizzle with any remaining syrup and serve with double cream, if desired.

Good Taste - November 2005, Page 111
Recipe by Sarah Hobbs Photography by Chris Court

Notes from web site:

• A little time consuming with the oranges, but it was worth it I think! The cake was yummy, so were the aromas! Only used half the sugar and was plenty sweet. As a previous reader said, the whole 375mL is not really necessary for the sauce, you could probably get away with maybe 200mL
• Absolutely Yum! Keeps extremely well for days. Instead of botrtis syrup I did a orange glaze! Yum Yum
• A delicious cake. I used a mini muffin pan so only needed to cook the cakes for 25mins. I didn't have the wine so substituted a large slurp of Frangelica liqueur. I think I may try Cointreau next time.
• Very easy and so delicious! I prepared the oranges the day before which made it much quickerEasy, but time consuming to make.
• Great for entertaining. I would use only 200-250ml wine for the syrup next time and serve the remaining in glasses to accompany the dish, as you end up with too much syrup. I also cooked this for an hour (not 1 1/4 hrs) and it was slighlty overcooked, so watch the cooking time.