I took this cake along to the book group I have just joined (at Blackwell's on South Bridge, in Edinburgh). My cake was finished off almost instantly, which is more than can be said for this month's book - the diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, in which the wife of Lev Tolstoy spends 40 years complaining about her husband.
Ingredients
for the cake batter
2 large oranges
1 cup of strong green tea
6 green cardamom pods
6 eggs
150 g quick-cook polenta
150 g ground almonds
250 g golden caster sugar
for the syrup
1 orange
50 g caster sugar
50 ml water
Method
- Place two of the oranges in plenty of water, bring to the boil and simmer for one hour. Drain the oranges, cut into quarters and allow to cool.
- Make a cup of strong green tea, and add the cracked cardamom pods to it.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, and line and grease a springform cake tin.
- Peel the orange quarters, remove the pithy centre and any pips, and puree in a food processor.
- Transfer the orange puree to a mixing bowl, add the polenta and 50g of cardamom-infused green tea, stir well and leave to sit for 5 minutes or so.
- Add the eggs, almonds and caster sugar and beat well. Pour the mixture into the tin, and bake for about 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, zest the remaining orange. Make a syrup by heating the caster sugar, zest and water until the sugar is dissolved. Strain through a tea strainer to remove the zest.
- Allow the cake to cool before removing from the tin. Prick it all over with a toothpick, and pour the syrup over it.
