Orange blossom and yoghurt cake
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + 30 minutes in the oven
- Easy
- serves 8
Ingredients
- 200g self-raising flour, sifted
- 100g ground almonds
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs, beaten with a fork
- 250g Greek yoghurt
- 150ml sunflower oil
- 1 lemon, zested
orange syrup
- 150ml water
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 orange, juiced and 2 strips of zest
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 5 cardamom pods, crushed
- 1 tbsp orange flower water, look in the king section of larger supermarkets or buy from Middle Eastern shops
- to serve icing sugar and crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt
Method
- STEP 1
To make the syrup, put the water, sugar, rind, citrus juices and cardamom into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. Bring to the boil and simmer for 7 minutes. It will thicken and become syrupy as it cools. Cool then strain and add the orange flower water.
- STEP 2
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter or oil a 20cm springform cake tin. Put all the dry ingredients for the cake in a bowl with a good pinch of salt and make a well in the centre. Put all the rest of the ingredients in the well and stir with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating the wet ingredients. Spoon into the tin and bake for half an hour. A skewer pushed into the middle of the cake should come out clean, if not give it a little longer.
- STEP 3
Leave for 10 minutes to cool in the tin, then turn onto a plate. Pierce all over with a skewer and, while the cake is still warm, slowly pour over the syrup. Leave to soak in. Dust with icing sugar just before serving – the sugar just disappears into the syrupy top otherwise – and serve with crème fraîche or yoghurt.
