Orange, polenta and almond cake

I  love London in the summer. 
Most of the best restaurants have promotional offers going on to fill the tables left empty by Londoners who’ve gone on holiday. Parks and monuments fill up with outdoor cinemas and fun fairs. The Southbank centre puts on amazing festivals, and the rooftop terraces are back in business. 
It is definitely one of my favourite seasons in which to enjoy this beautiful city of ours!

Orange, almond and polenta cake

This cake looks very simple and plain, but is one the nicest cakes I have eaten in a long time.
With the sponge infused with the orange syrup, the cake is so moist, luxurious and full of flavour. 
I served it with a homemade lemon thyme ice-cream, but a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a good dollop of creme fraiche would do wonders too.

Ingredients 

For the cake 
200 g soft unsalted butter

200 g caster sugar
200 g ground almonds
100 g fine polenta
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 large eggs
Zest of 4 oranges (save juice for syrup) 

For the syrup 
Juice of 4 oranges
50g g icing sugar

Method

1/ Preheat the oven to 180°C

2/ Line the base of a 20-25 cm springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease it it all over with butter.

3/ By hand with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.

4/ Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture. Add 1 egg, and mix a bit more. Then add some more of the dry ingredients, then another egg, and so on until you have added all the dry ingredients and eggs.

5/ Beat in the orange zest and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.

6/ Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out just clean. The edges of the cake might have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven on a cooling rack, and leave in the tin.

7/ Make the syrup: boil the orange juice with the icing sugar in a small pan, letting it thicken slightly (it will take about three to four minutes)

8/ Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester or a tooth pick, pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool completely before taking it out of its tin.

For this cake, I did a mix between recipes from Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver.

Seville orange and ginger curd

It's the Seville orange season!
Run to your local fruit and veg merchant or supermarket because the Seville orange season only lasts for a few weeks.
These lovely aromatic Spanish oranges are not great eaten raw (they're bitter) but are perfect for making marmalade, baking cakes or making curd!

Seville orange and ginger curd

I found a Seville orange curd recipe in the latest edition of Tesco magazine and couldn't resist adding ginger to it. Ginger and orange work wonders together and this curd makes a lovely new take on our traditional lemon curd. 
It's delicious with yogurt, spread on toasts or pancakes,...or just eaten on its own!

Ingredients (for 2 to 3 medium sized jam jars)

125ml Seville orange juice, freshly squeezed (that's around 4 or 5 oranges depending on their size), with or without the pulp depending on the texture you prefer (there is no pulp in mine)
3 eggs
125g unsalted butter cut into cubes
200g caster sugar
1 large thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, very finely grated (I grated it with a zester)

Method

Before making your curd, wash jam jars with hot soapy water and dry them for an hour in the oven at 150deg C, to sterilise them, 

1/In a small pan, whisk (with a hand whisk) the eggs, sugar, juice and ginger. On low heat, whisk for 5 minutes or until hot, and add gradually the butter until completely melted

2/ Cook on low heat, whisking continuously until the curd is glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

3/ Pour the curd into sterilised jars and seal. Leave to cool and keep in the fridge. Eat within 2 to 3 weeks.

A taste of Autumn: Orange and Pumpkin Cake

A few months ago, I announced proudly that I had moved in with The Man.
So picture me (in full-on lovey-dovey mode) with a ton of girl stuff, including 30 pairs of shoes and a container of baking equipment, invading a one bedroom flat.
The Man invested in storage units, I got rid of all the clothes I hadn't worn in 3 years (and was keeping "just in case"), and I said "bye for now" to my enormous ice-cream maker and baking robot which moved to the attic.
9 months later though, a third of my stuff is still in boxes. The single book shelf that is mine has been invaded by his latest buys, and I sometimes wish I could storm out to another room (which wouldn't have to be the bathroom) when I get angry with him (would that be the honeymoon phase coming to an end? Yeah, maybe there's a little bit of that too).
We've come to the difficult conclusion that this can't go on any longer. So we're buying a bigger house. 

Orange and butternut squash cake

This is one of the best sponges I've ever made. As often in cakes made with vegetables, this cake doesn't taste strongly of pumpkin, but is full of its smooth consistency and moisture. Orange and pumpkin are a match made in sponge heaven.
With its lovely colour and autumnal spices, it's a perfect seasonal cake!

Ingredients

225 grams self-raising flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon of mixed spice: I used cinnamon, nutmeg and turmeric

1 teaspoon ground ginger

175 grams golden caster sugar

3 large eggs (beaten)

200 ml sunflower oil

225 grams butternut squash/pumpkin purée (canned purée is fine)

1 orange (juice and peel)

Method

1/ Preheat the oven to 180deg C (160deg C fan oven). Grease and base line a medium sized cake tin.

2/ Sift together the flour, baking powder and spices into a large bowl, stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil, extract, rind and juice then stir until smooth. Add the puree and stir in well.

3/ Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 45-55 minutes until a metal skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.  Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

4/ Lightly dust the top of the cake with icing sugar.

Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's orange and butternut squash cake recipe

Sticky citrus and almond cake

However old you might be, when you're the youngest of 5, you always remain the baby in the eyes of your family.

Worse, whether you do it unconsciously or not, you tend to play up that role. You might behave like a kid for a little bit longer than your other siblings, you might chose a different lifestyle to them,...I call it  "The youngest child syndrome"

Crucially, it means that you might have loads of responsibility at work or that you have finally moved in with your partner but you're never seen as a real adult until you've hosted a family dinner, let alone the full Christmas celebrations.

Now I'm 31 and I've kind of been leading that 'adult-with-responsibilities' life for a while, but in a couple of weeks I will become a real adult: I'm hosting Christmas at my place.

Needless to say, I'm in complete panic mode. I've started to pull together a list of things I need to prepare but scarily I don't have much time now, as my family rocks up in less than a week.

And of course, like any kid, as much as it thrills me to be hosting Christmas, I procrastinate as much as possible when it comes to the actual preparations. There's all that other exiting Christmas stuff to enjoy first!

Sticky citrus cake

That's the way I like fruity cakes: sticky with caramel!
This cake is a divine matching between tangy orange, and sticky golden syrup. It's moist, fresh, absolutely scrumptious. I've made it so many times, it's one of my all time favourites.

Ingredients

4 medium oranges

6 tbsp golden syrup, plus extra to serve, optional

200g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

200g soft brown sugar

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g ground almonds

4 large eggs

Make the sticky citrus cake 

1.    Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Finely grate the zest from 2 oranges into a large bowl. Cut the peel and pith from all the oranges with a serrated knife, and slice quite thickly.

2.    Drizzle the golden syrup evenly over the base of a greased 23cm round cake tin or a silicone cake mould. There is no need to line the tin and it shouldn’t have a loose bottom otherwise the syrup will bubble through. Arrange the best orange slices on top of the syrup and finely chop any that don’t fit.

3.    Put all the remaining ingredients in the bowl with the zest and chopped orange. Beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Spoon on top of the oranges, spread lightly and make a deep hollow in the centre of the mix with the back of a spoon – this will ensure that the cake rises evenly.

4.    Bake for 35-45 mins until firm when pressed. Allow to cool down before turning out. Drizzle with golden syrup if you like.