Orange cake

Using whole oranges is a great way to make a beautifully moist cake. I have had a few requests for the recipe for this orange cake served at our recent launch event. I love a recipe with ingredients that I always have available in my kitchen. This is a perfect example of this.

Cake ingredients

• 3 small oranges
• 180g butter
• 1 cup caster suger
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Method

• Cook oranges for 1 hour in a covered saucepan with water that is about 5cm deep. Monitor water and top up if required
• Preheat oven to 180C
• Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin
• Chop oranges in half, remove pips then blend in food processor to form a smooth paste
• Soften butter (microwave for 30 seconds)
• Cream sugar and butter together
• Add eggs and mix
• Add flour and blended oranges
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from tin to cool on a wire rack.
• Allow to cool completely before cutting into pieces

I cut the edges off then cut the cake into 25 equal pieces. I find these are too tall to ice so I then cut each piece in half.

Icing ingredients

• 200g icing sugar
• 125g butter
• 2 tablespoons water

 Method

• Soften butter (microwave for 20 seconds)
• Add icing sugar and beat for 5 minutes
• Add water and beat for a further 2 minutes
• Pipe onto cut pieces of cake
• Decorate with a sprinkle of orange jelly crystals

Have you got a backup recipe that you can rely on when you need to whip something up?