Citrus adds a Fresh Taste to this Sumptuous Dessert!

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My Talley Farms Fresh Harvest CSA box is a wonderful resource for making desserts. I usually look first to the fruit in my box when deciding on a sweet finish to my meal. Often dinner in itself is enough to fill you fully, but as the saying goes “there’s always room for something sweet!” When making your dessert center around fruit, at least you can be adding beneficial nutrients and fiber to your meal along with the extra calories!

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Using the zest from citrus adds enormous flavor to a recipe. It’s a waste to only use the segments or juice from the fruit and throw away the skin containing the wonderful zest along with it. There are kitchen tools that make it super easy to zest citrus fruits such as a basic zester or microplane. Both work equally well and offer different sizes for fine or larger zest pieces. It is best to use organic/unsprayed fruit when utilizing the skin in your recipes but either way, wash them thoroughly before zesting.

Orange Syrup Cake with Candied Oranges
Orange Syrup Cake with Candied Oranges

The result of this recipe is a moist, flavorful cake. The candied oranges add not only a visual highlight, but are a delectable addition as well! A little cardamom in the whipped cream puts the “icing on the cake” so to speak. Since this dessert is so packed with flavor, savoring a small piece is all that is necessary to enjoy it fully. 

Orange Syrup Cake with Candied Oranges

Serves 12

Ingredients
 
Cake
  • 4 oranges, zested
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups almond flour
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • pinch of salt
Syrup
  • 3/4 cup combined orange and lemon juice, squeeze the juice from the zested citrus
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
Candied orange slices
  • 1 orange
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup water
Whipped cream
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350º. Butter a 9- to 10-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
  2. Grind the citrus zest in a food processor with the 1 1/2 cups of sugar until it’s finely ground.
  3. Add the butter to the food processor with the zest-infused sugar and pulse until well-combined.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk the almond flour, flour, and salt until mixed.
  5. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter in the food processor, then add the eggs one by one, stopping the machine a few times to scrape the sides down. Then add the remaining flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
  6. Scrape the batter into the pan. Level the top of the batter, and bake the cake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out relatively clean, but a little moist.
  7. While the cake is baking, make the syrup by heating the 3/4 cup citrus juice and 6 tablespoons of sugar in a nonreactive saucepan until boiling and the sugar is dissolved, then set aside. When the cake comes out of the oven, brush some of the syrup liberally over the hot cake. Let cool completely in the pan.
  8. To candy the oranges, cut the orange into 1/4-inch slices. Put the slices in a nonreactive saucepan, and add enough water to cover them well, and bring to a simmer. Blanch the slices for ten minutes, then drain well.
  9. Put the oranges back in the saucepan and add the 2/3 cup sugar and 2/3 cup water and cook the oranges at a simmer for about ten minutes, or until they are tender and translucent.
  10. Using a hand mixer with cold beaters in a cold bowl, blend the heavy cream with the cardamom and powdered sugar until it forms stiff peaks.
  11. Serve the cake with a slice of candied orange and a dollop of whipped cream. Drizzle some of the orange syrup on top.
Notes
  • Originally adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, this cake is worth the effort. Although there are several steps, it isn’t a difficult recipe.

(click here) for printable recipe

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2 opinions on “Citrus adds a Fresh Taste to this Sumptuous Dessert!”

  1. This orange cake was a very impressive yet not-too-complicated dessert to take to a friend’s home for dinner. I enjoyed the slightly heavy density of this cake making it hard to get it wrong. It was so moist and delicious. My friends were a little intimidated to eat the candied oranges – rind and all, but I thought it was the perfect addition to the cake! The cake is even better over the next day or so. Any leftovers make a wonderful coffee cake the next morning. I will make this again and again!

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    1. So glad you were up to the challenge, Jill. It is a very impressive dessert and I agree that it gets better with time!

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