I have one of my best friends birthdays, and a very little black dress this Saturday night. So, naturally, this week was meant to be healthy breakfasts, green smoothie lunches and portioned controlled dinners.
Yeah. No. Didn’t happen. As always, my one true love got the better of me. Food won.
So while I do squats and sit ups for my life, but continue to eat cake and then whinge. I urge you to join me in my gluttony and make this cake IMMEDIATELY! Dense, rich and moist (hate that word, but an extremely apt description), this is one of the best things I have eaten in a while. I was going to make the classic flourless orange cake but wanted something a little different and this one is next level! Not to mention quick, easy and essentially foolproof, which is lucky because I suck at baking!
- 180ml sunflower oil
- 240ml orange juice
- 160g orange marmalade
- 4 medium free-range eggs
- grated zest of 1 orange
- 70g caster sugar
- 70g desiccated coconut
- 90g plain flour
- 180g semolina
- 2 tbsp ground almonds
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Thick Greek yoghurt and Persian Fairy Floss to serve
- 200g caster sugar
- 140ml water
- 1 tbsp orange blossom water, plus a little for the yoghurt
- Preheat oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, whisk the oil, orange juice, marmalade, eggs and orange rind until the marmalade is smooth and well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, coconut, flour, semolina, almonds and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined into a runny batter.
- Grease a standard loaf tin and line with baking paper. Pour the batter into the tin, and bake for 45 minutes or until golden and springy to the touch.
- Just before the cake is done, bring the sugar, water and orange blossom water to the boil in a small saucepan. Let boil 1 minute, then remove from the heat.
- Remove the cake from the oven and immediately brush it the syrup, letting the syrup soak into the holes. Do this a couple of times until about half the syrup is gone. I reserve the rest for serving. Either in the yoghurt or straight up drizzled all over the cake. Just for good measure! Oh and lots of Persian fairy floss!
