Confessions of a Cakeaholic

I love eating cake but I also love making cakes. I like it when I know someone is going to visit because it gives me an excuse to bake a cake. I also like to take a cake when I visit, and something still warm from the oven usually goes down a treat.

This recipe is one of my favourites.

Orange and Almond Cake 

This is a real orange cake, not one of those trendy, bitter ones.

Ingredients 

1 Cup (220g) caster Sugar

250g marzipan, cut into small chunks

5 large (70g) eggs

280g butter, chopped into small pieces and softened

finely grated zest of 2 large oranges

1 tsp of orange essence

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond essence

190g plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

4 tbsp marmalade + 2 tbsp water

Method

Preheat oven to 170C. Butter or spray a 23cm round spring form pan and line with 2 layers of baking paper.

1. Put caster sugar and marzipan chunks into food processor and whiz them together until thoroughly pulverised. Add the eggs to the processor and whiz again for 1 min. Scatter butter chunks on top and whizz for another 40 seconds or so until the mixture is light and creamy. Don't worry if the mixture looks a little curdled. Add the orange zest, essences and vanilla extract and whiz briefly to combine.
2. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt and pulse to just combine. Do not over mix at this stage.
3. Pour mixture into prepared tin and smooth out top. Bake for one hour or until a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool cake in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
4. Place marmalade and water into small saucepan and heat until syrupy then pour over warm cake.
5. The cake is best served warm but keeps well for a couple of days.