An orange cake

I’m not entirely convinced by this recipe, though that may partly arise from the facts that I lacked one key ingredient and replaced it experimentally, and I lacked the ideal size cake tins. That latter issue – so annoying, yet so typical. The thing I hate most in baking is a cake that sinks in the middle, it really upsets me; but somethingI also hate – not quite such a passionate extent is having the wrong tins for a recipe, particuarly a layered sponge recipe, and the result being too damned flat. This one called for sandwich tins 18cm in diamter, my closest tins were 20cm. This might seem inconsequential, but it spreads the sponge mixture out to a point where the result is disappointingly lacking in elevation.

Ergo, if I do this one again, I’ll double it, but as I’d not made it before, I didn’t want to risk that first time for fear of the opposite problem – having too much mixture for the tins I had available, and it not cooking through properly (cue sinking middle).

Anways, it was from the inimitable Dan Lepard, a guy who has a great job providing the Saturday Guardian magazine with the recipe for something baked each week. (Or did. Last week he was missing – hope that’s not permanent, as his little recipe column was one of the best things in there. I’ve firmly adopted several recipes of his, some of which will doubtless make an appearance on this blog).

He wrote “if you can find the same flavour in two or more ingredients, then combine them for a dazzling effect” – in this case he combined fresh orange (zest in the sponge, zest and juice in the icing) with Cointreau or Grand Marnier. Not being huge liqueur fans, we had neither in the cupboard. Though I did have orange blossom water and a tiny bottle of Cognac (oddly, a promo item for a crazy Japanese film from a few years back called Ichi The Killer), which I thought combined might provide a suitable replacement. The result is perhaps overly scented by the orange blossom water, though I used some marvellous organic blood oranges, the zest of which is lovely and tangy and the juice of which gave the icing its dark (ish) orange hue.

His recipe – which he calls “Orange macaroon cake” also includes desiccated coconut, an ingredient I’m not convinced about in this context, as its slightly chewy texture detracts from the nice spongyness, and its flavour is, arguably, at odds with orange. I may well be more inclined to stick with the kind of orange cake that involves a syrup drizzled over the sponge after it comes out of the over, giving a slightly crunchy, zesty topping. Or I might experiment with Maestro Lepard’s recipe a bit more.

His full recipe can be found here.