A completely new recipe for me here. I saw the recipe in Olive magazine while on holiday and scribbled down the list of ingredients on a post it note. I never manage to write down instructions other than the temperature and cooking time so, as usual, I winged it. Occasionally I manage to scribble down a word or two of instruction like “mix”, “boil” or “melt” and an arrow but it is rare! If I were organised I’d remember where I saw recipes or tear them out or something but organised I definitely am not! Despite making it up as I went along I am very pleased with this. It’s lovely, sticky, orangey and moist but you can still hold a slice in your hand to eat it. I thought it looked a little boring on its own so I added a glace icing to give it a little boost.
For the cake:
110g butter, softened
180g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 orange, grated
180g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk
For the syrup:
juice of 2 oranges*
3 tbsp lemon juice
100g golden caster sugar
For the icing:
2 heaped dessert spoonfuls of icing sugar
1 spoonful of lemon juice
– Heat the oven to gas mark 4. Grease and line a large loaf tin** with baking paper.
– Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
– Beat in the eggs and orange zest.
– Fold in the flour and baking powder then add the milk and mix well.
– Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes.
– Put all of the syrup ingredients in a pan and bring to a gentle boil for a five minutes. Do not let it boil over!
– To check if the cake is ready test with a skewer and if the skewer comes out clean then stab with the skewer all over.
– Keeping the cake in the tin pour the syrup over it a bit at a time and leave it for at least an hour until all of the liquid is absorbed.
– Remove the cake from the tin and put on a plate.
– Mix the lemon juice and icing sugar together until it reaches a smooth, runny consistency and either drizzle over the cake with a spoon or fill a small plastic bag with the icing and then cut the corner off it. Zig zag back and forth until the desired effect is reached.
*I take the zest off the second orange as well and store it in a bag in the freezer for use in another recipe.
** I think my loaf tin might be a 2lb one but I have two and one is tiny and the other large. Any large loaf tin would do I think.
Anna in the kitchen 