Dreaming of the weekend
It inevitably happens. By the time Wednesday rolls around, I tend to stop thinking about the mountain of work piling up on my desk and in my inbox and start daydreaming about the upcoming weekend. Maybe that’s why some people call Wednesday hump-day. It marks the middle of the work week. Get over the hump and the weekend is just that much closer.
Nothing beats a lazy weekend morning spent with a good book, great company, some delicious homemade food and a nice cup of tea or coffee. A few months back, I wrote about Damien Pignolet’s serious orange cake. Since then, S and I have been testing a few other orange cake recipes. In particular, we’ve been trying out some excellent flourless ones.
One of the best and easiest recipes we’ve found is Claudia Roden’s “middle eastern orange cake”. It’s an incredibly delicious and moist cake. While Ms Roden’s original recipe recommends baking the cake in a springform pan, we prefer separating the batter into muffin molds. It’s much easier to grab a muffin than it is to cut and plate slices. Be sure to try and get oranges with thin skins. Thicker skins, when blended into the cake mix, tend to make the resulting cake a tad bitter.
The best time to make these is actually right away. That way, by the time the weekend does finally roll around, you’ll have a nice batch already prepared and waiting for you.
Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern Orange Cake
2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten
250g ground almonds
250g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Boil oranges in a little water in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. Allow to cool, then cut open, remove pips and chop roughly. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius and butter and flour a springform tin. Blend oranges and remaining ingredients thoroughly in a food processor. Pour the batter into prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour. If the cake is still very wet, cook a little longer. Cool in tin before gently turning out.
Technorati tags: Claudia Roden, orange cake, recipes
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
Hi CH,
This sounds like a very simple and yummy recipe – thanks for posting and look forward to trying it!
This looks like a very easy recipe, I have to try it.
While not a fan of orange cakes, I couldn’t suppress a smile when I saw the two penguin books you have on your tray…. I chose the Elizabeth David and Jamie Oliver ones too, in fact, the Elizabeth David is in this room right now! She’s a wonderful writer, but I must say your writing rivals hers in the evocative and enjoyable stakes,
I think about the weekend as early as Monday hahahaha
looks amazing! seems like i’ve another recipe to try out 🙂 do you add in all of the skin? or only some of them?
No flour? Superb! Going to try it soon! Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
Riana – Jakarta
Those cakes sound delicious! I have made a roast capsicum and chickpea salad from Claudia Roden which was featured in Vogue E+T…it was fantastic! I must get one of her books! Thanks for passing on this recipe…
Oh, and I also have Jamie Oliver’s little book you’ve got there 🙂
What a co-incidence! I just made those over the weekend with a batch of blood oranges. Instead of a springform pan I used a shallow baking tin so I can cut them with the circular cutters. I personally think these cakes get better after a day or two in the fridge.
I made bread that followed this recipe somewhat, it did contain flour though. I thought it was a mistake to grind up the oranges skin and all, but I did it anyway. My bread turned out wonderful, I bet your version is even richer without the addition of flour.
I want to paint this breakfast tray..
ParisBreakfasts
yeah claudia roden is a gem…great idea to bake these in muffin tins..I wonder how blood oranges would work?
I made something very similar to these recently but I added a bit of olive oil to the mix for extra moistness.
I also ground the almonds up myself in the food processor but left them a bit coarse which gave them a really nice texture with the occasional bit almond.
I served my cakes with mascarpone which I beat a few tablespoons of rosewater into. Just delicious!
Jennifer
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