Orange Syrup Cake

If there is anyone out there that reads this, i'm sorry for the lack of posts. However, I do have a few things to post about and I will try and update with a few posts over the next week.

I made an orange syrup cake on Sunday and it turned out really well. My brother in law and his wife have an orange tree growing in their backyard and have generously given us a bag of oranges, yum! I will be making the cake again this week although I wouldn't mind trying a recipe that uses almond meal instead of regular flour.

Here is the recipe - Nigella's Orange Syrup Cake, from the cookbook "How to be a Domestic Goddess".

For the cake:
125g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
175g self raising flour
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons of milk
23x13x7cm loaf tin, buttered and lined

For the syrup:
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons (about 4 tablespoons)
100g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and butter and line your loaf tin w2ell.

Cream together the butter and sugar, and add the eggs and lemon zest, beating them in well. Add the flour and salt, folding in gently but thoroughly, and then the milk. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and put in the oven. While the cake is cooking, get on with the syrup. Put the lemon juice and sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar disolves.

Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until golden, risen in the middle (although it will sink a little on cooling) and an inserted cake-tester comes out clean. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, puncture the top of the loaf all over with the cake-tester or suitable implement. Pour over the syrup, trying to let the middle absorb it as well as the sides, the leave it to soak up the rest. Don't try to take the cake out of the tin until it is completely cold, as it will be sodden with syrup and might crumble.

I substituted the lemon for orange, used the zest of two oranges and the juice of one orange (which was a particularly juicy one). I doubled the quantity and used a silicon ring mould. I also forgot to include the milk. Once the cake had baked, I poked a lot of holes in the top and then poured over the syrup and stuck it in the fridge to try and get it to cool down quickly so I could take it to my in laws for lunch. I also put a little mixture into three patty pans to make three cupcakes so we could try it before cutting into the cake. The cupcakes were very dry, but I had tried not to put too much syrup onto them so as not to be short of syrup for the cake.

I'm sure this cake would work well with any citrus. Also, Nigella suggests spiking the syrup with limoncello, Italian liquor. This might be a nice touch if you have some handy and if the cake is only going to be for the grown ups.

Enjoy!