First time I made this cake was about 6 years ago. I kept making various desserts for my guests and family and almost forgot about this one. Recently when my kids asked me to make something fruity and flavorful I opened my old diary where I use to make note of each and every dish that I would serve to my guests while I was in Sri Lanka, and guess what I stumbled upon this one. Now in past two weeks I have baked it three times and I guess it is high time that I share it with you.
Ingredients:
50g breadcrumbs
200g castor sugar
l00g almonds, ground
1 ½ tsp baking powder
200 ml sunflower or vegetable oil
4 eggs
zest of 1 large orange
zest of ½ a lemon/ lime
Syrup:
Juice of 1 orange
Juice of ½ lime
80g sugar
2 cloves
1 piece of star anise
Cooking time: 40 – 50 minutes
Preparation time: 10 -15 minutes
Note: For this recipe do not preheat the oven.
Temperature: 190oC or 375oF or Gas mark 4
Instructions:
- Grease and line a cake tin (8 inch or 20cm)
- In a large bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder.
- Add the oil and eggs to the mixture and beat well.
- Stir in the orange and lemon zest.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
- Put into a cold oven and set to heat to 190C (375F /gas mark 5).
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is a rich brown and a skewer/ fork inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes in the tin then turn out onto a plate.
Method to prepare syrup:
- Bring all the ingredients gently to the boil in a pan stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
- Simmer for 2 minutes.
You can prepare the syrup while cake is baking.
- Pierce the cake with a skewer/ fork while still warm and pour the syrup over it.
- Leave to cool spooning the syrup over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked up.
Serve it with whipped cream.