Because sometimes you want a simple, quick, delicious cake and this recipe fits the bill. Not too large with umpteen layers to negotiate, not small and fiddly; just the right size.
With grated carrot, crushed pineapple and warm spices, this cake is moist, flavoursome and topped with the most moreish of all icings – cream cheese.

Grease and line an 8″ square tin. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/GM 4.

Into a medium bowl, place the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and pinch of salt. Stir it with a hand whisk to combine and de-lump. Add the brown sugar and stir again to combine.

In a small bowl, place the oil and eggs, then whisk together well.

Make a well in the flour mix and add the egg/oil mixture.

Stir to combine.

Add the crushed pineapple and grated carrot

Stir in with a spatula and pour into the lined tin.

Bake for 35-40 mins.
Once baked – check by using a wooden toothpick and ensuring it comes out clean – cool in the tin for 5 mins, then remove from the tin and cool completely.

Now the frosting.

Blend together the orange zest, cream cheese and unsalted butter,

then add the icing sugar and orange juice or vanilla.

Beat together with an electric whisk until creamy and just holding its shape.

Swirl over the top of the passion cake.

Devour. Passionately.

———–

Carrot and Pineapple Passion Cake
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1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I made that a generous 1/2)
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
2/3 cup soft light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup grated carrot (2 medium carrots)
432g tin crushed pineapple, drained

Icing
3oz unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 oz cream cheese
grated zest 1 orange (optional)
1+ cup  icing sugar
1 tsp orange juice (or vanilla extract if you’re not using orange zest)

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/GM4. Grease and line an 8″ square tin.

Combine flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Stir with a hand whisk to combine.
Add the sugar and stir again to distribute.
Make a well in the middle of the flour.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs until well combined. Pour into the well and stir to combine.
Add the carrots and pineapple and stir in.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 mins. Check it is baked by inserting a wooden toothpick – it should come out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then remove from the tin to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing:
Beat the orange zest, butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
Add the icing sugar and juice or extract and beat well until smooth. Add more icing sugar if you like it sweeter and/or thicker.

Swirl on to the passion cake.

—

My first daring bakers challenge!

Lisa was the host and she selected cannolis. I have never had cannolis; I had heard of them because I used to make a cannoli cake that was filled with ricotta, cream, orange and choc chips. Now I know why.

I had also heard Tony Soprano referring to them a lot. That wasn’t necessarily a recommendation; after all, he talked about murder a lot too.

So Tone was wrong about the murdering, but oh… so very right about the cannoli.

So the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and cocoa go into a medium bowl

Add the oil, Marsala and white wine vinegar and stir and squidge to make a stiff-ish dough

Once together, knead for a couple of minutes until it’s smooth, then seal in a bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours – I left mine overnight.

Cut the dough into quarters and roll one quarter out until it’s thin enough to go through a pasta machine

Put the dough through the pasta machine – I initially rolled it through 1, then 3, then 5, then 6.

7 is the highest setting, but that was a little too thin for my liking.

Now. The cannoli forms. There was great debate on what to use. People were sawing up wooden handles, going bizarre things with foil and all sorts. I spoke to the friendly people in my local cake decorating shop and they were kind enough to order me some cannoli (stainless steel) forms. Lisa said that dried cannelloni shells worked too, so I stocked up on a box of them just in case.

Heated a pan of oil to 350-375F. I have watched Fireman Sam so many times, I actually had a wet tea towel next to me. You can cook 2 at a time, but I did one at a time – far less stressful and they do need attention in the oil, turning, grabbing – that kind of thing. They took no time at all to cook. Apparently, good cannoli are blistered and that’s our goal. Mine blistered and I nearly wept with relief and joy.

This is what the cannelloni shells looked like after I had removed the cooked cannoli. Say that fast again.

And here they are…..

Cannoli shells!

Now to the filling. I wanted 3 different flavours. Traditionally they are filled with ricotta, but I find ricotta a bit too grainy to be completely satisfying, so I used equal quantities (250g) of ricotta and mascarpone.

I blended them together then separated them into 3 bowls.

First, traditional. So to the first bowl, I added the zest of 1 orange, around 3 tsp icing sugar and a handful of chocolate chips and stirring it all together.

Second, a little something to coax out the cinnamon flavour. So to the second bowl, I added some dry-fried pecans that I chopped and a good slug of maple syrup.

For the final bowl, I was thinking nougat, so I dry-fried some almonds, chopped them and also added a big glug of strong honey. If I really liked candied zest and glace cherries, I would have added those too.

Put it together and what do you get?

Maple syrup and pecan Cannoli.  Mmmmmmm

————-

Lisa’s recipe:
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CANNOLI SHELLS

2 cups (250 grams/16 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners’ sugar

Note – If you want a chocolate cannoli dough, substitute a few tablespoons of the flour (about 25%) with a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) and a little more wine until you have a workable dough (Thanks to Audax).

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Pasta Machine method:

1. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting at the middle setting, run one of the pieces of dough through the rollers of a pasta machine. Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Pass the dough through the machine repeatedly, until you reach the highest or second highest setting. The dough should be about 4 inches wide and thin enough to see your hand through

2. Continue rolling out the remaining dough. If you do not have enough cannoli tubes for all of the dough, lay the pieces of dough on sheets of plastic wrap and keep them covered until you are ready to use them.

3, Roll, cut out and fry the cannoli shells as according to the directions above.

For stacked cannoli:
1. Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

2. Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

My fillings:

250g ricotta
250g marscapone

toasted almonds, chopped
honey to taste

toasted pecans, chopped
maple syrup to taste

rind 1 orange
handful chocolate chips
3 tsp icing sugar

Blend the ricotta and marscapone together and separate into 3 bowls.
Into one bowl, add the almonds and honey, the second bowl the maple and pecans, the third bowl the orange, icing sugar and choc chips. Stir to combine.

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:

1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.

2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

TIPS AND NOTES:
- Dough must be stiff and well kneaded
- Rolling the dough to paper thinness, using either a rolling pin or pasta machine, is very important. If the dough is not rolled thin enough, it will not blister, and good cannoli should have a blistered surface.
- Initially, this dough is VERY stubborn, but keep rolling, it eventually gives in. Before cutting the shapes, let the dough rest a bit, covered, as it tends to spring back into a smaller shapes once cut. Then again, you can also roll circles larger after they’re cut, and/or into ovals, which gives you more space for filling.
- Your basic set of round cutters usually doesn’t contain a 5-inch cutter. Try a plastic container top, bowl etc, or just roll each circle to 5 inches. There will always be something in your kitchen that’s round and 5-inches if you want large cannoli.
- Oil should be at least 3 inches deep and hot – 360°F-375°F, or you’ll end up with greasy shells. I prefer 350°F – 360°F because I felt the shells darkened too quickly at 375°F.
- If using the cannoli forms, when you drop the dough on the form into the oil, they tend to sink to the bottom, resulting in one side darkening more. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to gently lift and roll them while frying.
- DO NOT crowd the pan. Cannoli should be fried 2-4 at a time, depending on the width of your saucepan or deep fryer. Turn them once, and lift them out gently with a slotted spoon/wire skimmer and tongs. Just use a wire strainer or slotted spoon for flat cannoli shapes.
- When the cannoli turns light brown – uniform in color, watch it closely or remove it. If it’s already a deep brown when you remove it, you might end up with a really dark or slightly burnt shell.
- Depending on how much scrap you have left after cutting out all of your cannoli shapes, you can either fry them up and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar for a crispy treat, or let the scraps rest under plastic wrap and a towel, then re-roll and cut more cannoli shapes.

A pretty, orange-hued bread, chewy and almost oily yet light, well-mannered and great for sandwiches, outstanding for toast.
I have adapted a recipe for Potato Bread by Nigella Lawson, purely on a whim. I expected potato bread to be a poor-keeper, but quite the opposite. It stays delicious for several days and when at last too stale for any but the wettest of sandwiches, makes toast to sell your soul for. I was thrilled with the original, which uses white potatoes, but as I strolled past the sweet potatoes in the supermarket, I had a flash of inspiration and a pioneering urge that would not be ignored. I reasoned that sweet potatoes are prepared like any other potato, have a sweeter taste, but even better – they have that colour. Oh… that colour. So I tried it. And it worked.
It’s not vivid enough to look artificial, but would be a nice addition to a more natural Halloween meal. Apart from that, any pretty coloured bread has to be a welcome addition to the table.

So begin by peeled, chopping and boiling the sweet potatoes. You need 300g of mash, so I usually use about 350g raw.
Once they are tender, drain them over a bowl (you must reserve the cooking water!), put them into a large bowl and mash them. Allow them to cool to warm. Measure 300ml of the cooking water into a jug and allow that to cool to tepid.

Measure 600g strong white (bread) flour into a medium bowl. To that, add 1 tbsp salt and a packet of easy-blend yeast. I’m showing you the packet in the picture. I assure you I cut the packet open and sprinkled the yeast over the flour

Stir well to combine it all, then add that to the warm mash

stir around with a spoon

then gradually add the 300ml of potato water

and a tbsp greek yogurt or sour cream

Once it looks like it’s going to come together, get in there with your hands and persuade the dough together

Tip it out on to a floured work surface and begin to knead it, adding flour as needed because it’s really sticky. Reckon to add another 200g of flour.

St the timer for 15 minutes and put the radio on. Now knead.

until the dough is looking more like bread dough – smoother, less sticky and much more elastic. this can take 20 mins, even 25 mins, you’ll see the difference when it’s done, but this dough is a much less genteel dough – it’ll never be silky smooth like most bread doughs are.
That’ll do.
Place it in an oiled or buttered bowl, cover it with clingfilm and sit it somewhere warm and most importantly, draught-free, for about an hour or until it’s doubled.

After 50-60 mins, have a peek
My, haven’t you grown.

Punch it down. You always get references to anger at this point, but I don’t get that. I ‘punch’ it down by slowly pressing my knuckles in. I enjoy the feeling of it deflating; it’s very bubble-wrap, sensation wise.

Knead it just for a minute or so and shape it into a round or an oblong. Don’t get too over-excited here because it billows and rises in the oven in my experience. I’d hate for you to hand-craft a shape for ages, only for it to not even remotely resemble your dream once it’s cooked.
Sit it on a well floured baking sheet and cover it loosely with a tea towel for around 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to GM7/220C/425F
Once 30 mins has passed and it’s looking puffy again, put your loaf into the oven for 20 mins.

After the 20 mins at GM7, turn the temperature down to GM5/190C/375F and cook for another 15 mins.

Check that it has cooked by knocking the bread with your knuckle. Check the top first – it will sound hollow.
Turn the loaf over (I usually have to run a spatula under it to release it) and knock its bottom. If it doesn’t sound hollow, put it back on the sheet upside down and cook for another 5 mins.
Check again. If it still doesn’t sound hollow, put it back in for another 5 mins.
Once it sounds hollow, remove from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
Woah! Hello my beauty!

Yum. Yummo.

It’s hard to convey its colour. Here is a slice on a white piece of paper.

Pretty, non? It’s easy – I’m no bread maker, but this recipe works. You’ll feel like the master of the Universe. Have a go.

———–

Blushing Bread

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adapted from Nigella Lawson’s ‘Potato Bread’

300g sweet potatoes, boiled and drained (water reserved)
800g strong white bread flour
1 tbsp salt
7g (1 sachet) easy-blend yeast (or 15g fresh yeast)
1 tblsp Greek yogurt or sour cream
300ml tepid potato water (the water you boiled the potatoes in)

Boil the sweet potatoes until soft, then drain – reserving 300ml of the water.
Allow the potatoes to cool, then put them into a large bowl and mash them.

Add 600g of the flour, the salt and yeast.
Mix together with a spoon, then gradually add the water and yogurt.
When it’s beginning to come together, turn the shaggy, bitty dough onto a floured work surface and start to knead it.
Add the remaining 200g flour as you knead because it is a very sticky dough. You don’t have to use all of the remaining flour, but invariably I need to.

The original version suggests putting it into the mixer with a dough hook, but when I did this, it practically climbed out, so I knead it by hand.
Be prepared to knead for around 20 minutes. I suggest putting the radio and a timer on.

After 15-20 mins and once the dough has become less sticky, more elastic and looking more like raw bread than a weird cellulite-ridden ball, you can rest.
Put the ball of dough into an oiled or buttered bowl and cover it with clingfilm.
Put the bowl somewhere warmish and draught-free for around an hour.

When the dough has doubled in size (this does only usually take 50-60 mins), punch it down.
Turn out of the bowl and knead just for a minute or so. Form it into a shape – round or oblong and place it on a floured baking sheet. Don’t get over excited about the shape, because it rises and swells significantly in the oven.
Cover the loaf loosely with a tea towel to allow a second rise for around 30 mins.
Preheat the oven to GM7/220C/425F

Once the 30 mins has elapsed and the loaf is looking puffy again, put it into the oven for 20 mins.
The turn the temperature down to GM5/190C/375F and cook for another 15 mins.

Check that it has cooked by knocking the bread with your knuckle. Check the top first – it will sound hollow.
Turn the loaf over (I usually have to run a spatula under it to release it) and knock its bottom. If it doesn’t sound hollow, put it back on the sheet upside down and cook for another 5 mins.
Check again. If it still doesn’t sound hollow, put it back in for another 5 mins. Be cautious.
Once it sounds hollow, remove from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack.

So after making the orange cake, I was perplexed as to what to do with the scraped, zestless oranges. Yes, I could slice them up and eat them, but that’s not exactly riveting.

Make jelly, my Mum suggested. (Jello to you gals across the pond)

So I did.

Using a sharp knife, cut long strips of zest from one orange and put it in a medium saucepan with 150g caster sugar and 400ml cold water.

Find your gelatine leaves

and take out 6 of them.

Soak them in a dish of cold water so that they can soften. Leave them for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring the pan up to a simmer to dissolve all the sugar into the water. Once this has happened, take the saucepan off the heat and remove the strips of zest.

Scoop the now floppy gelatine leaves from the water …

and squeeze the water out.

Stir into the liquid in the saucepan – it will dissolve almost instantly.

Leave to one side to carry on cooling down, then start squeezing your oranges, madam. You want 300ml of juice.

I got 300ml exactly from 4 oranges – what are the chances?! I used the juice attachment on my mixer though – I don’t think I could have achieved that amount using a normal ‘turn it round and round on the funny shaped glass thingy’ type.

Add the juice to the saucepan, stirring as you do so

Then put a sieve over a pretty glass dish and strain the jelly into the dish

If you wanted individual servings, strain the jelly into a jug and pour it into the smaller dishes, but we like a lake of jelly

You can see the small floating bits of real orange in this real jelly

Leave in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours, but leaving it overnight is the only way I feel confident that it’s set.

And it had; beautifully. It’s hard to describe its texture – wobbly like a jelly, obviously, but because it was real juice, there was body and substance to it. It was sweet – and the juice from the oranges was the sweetest I’ve ever tasted- but there was a fuller, tart back note to it.

Ian summed it up nicely – it was eating real food as opposed to rubbery fruit squash. There was no nasty chemical smell, nor was there the bitter aftertaste synonymous with saccharin. We put a drizzle of cream on it, but can you believe it was actually better without the cream? The flavour was so complex that the cream stifled it a bit.

You won’t find many of us in our families saying that something doesn’t need cream.

I made it because we all love jelly, but now that we’ve eaten this, I will never look forward to run of the mill jelly again. It’s not often this happens.

Alex said we shall have it every day. That is unlikely, but Ian has requested a lime version, so we’ll see where that takes us.

Not a bad way to use up scraped fruit and get your vitamin C quota all in one hit.

—————-

Orange Jelly

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6 leaves gelatine
4 oranges (mine were only medium sized, but I’d be tempted to have another on standby, just incase you don’t get enough juice)
150g caster sugar
400ml cold water

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes to soften.
Use a vegetable peeler or a small sharp knife and a steady hand to remove the zest of one orange in long strips.
Put into a medium saucepan with the water and sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring now and again, until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove the pan from the heat and remove the zest.
Scoop the now floppy gelatine leaves from the water and squeeze the water out. Stir into the liquid in the saucepan – it will dissolve almost instantly.
Leave the saucepan off the heat and allow the contents to cool a while.

Squeeze the oranges until you have 300ml of juice. I got this from exactly 4 oranges using the juice attachment on my mixer. If you are squeezing the oranges with a normal glass/ceramic juicer, you may not get this amount of juice – I know I never managed to get a huge amount when I did it by hand.

Stir the juice into the saucepan.
Strain the jelly through a fine sieve either into a jug so that you can pour individual servings into glasses/dishes, or sieve it straight into one large serving dish.

Refrigerate for a minimum of 5 hours – overnight would be a safer bet.

This is a great recipe to have up your sleeve when a recipe calls for lots of zest, but little or no juice. Also a great way to take advantage of a glut of citrus fruits from your greenhouse (!) or a great deal in the shops.
I suppose there’s nothing stopping you from using a commercially prepared juice, but I think the sweetness might be an issue. Having said that, I am not a fan of freshly squeezed orange juice, but the juice from these oranges was the sweetest I have ever tasted.

Mmmmmmmm.We have lunch with Mum and Dad on Sundays, and the afternoon is ‘try a new cake’ day.This cake was yesterday’s offering and is a delightful recipe from a dear little book called  ‘Good Food’s 101 Teatime Treats’.

I felt sure I would want to tweak it, but in fact it needed little altering – brilliant recipe.

Butter and line two 20cm/8″ sandwich tins and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Put 6oz softened butter, 6oz caster sugar and the zest of 3 oranges into a large bowl.

Cream until fluffy (high five!)

Beat in 4 egg yolks, then sift in 4oz self-raising flour, 1tsp baking powder and 4oz ground almonds and gently fold in.

Fold in the juice of 1 orange.

Whisk the 4 egg whites until they are just holding their shape (the shape of a lady’s legs, in this case)

and gently fold this in too, in 3 lots.

Divide the batter between the two tins …

and bake for 30 mins, or until golden and, erm, cooked. Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then remove from tins and cool completely on a wire rack.

The icing now. Melt 8oz white chocolate very gently in a bowl resting over a saucepan of hot water. Take the bowl off the saucepan and allow the chocolate  to cool.

With a handwhisk, whip a 200ml carton of creme fraiche until thickened. (It says on the side of the carton that it can’t be whipped, but apparently you can).

Add the cooled, melted chocolate and blend the two together.

Now. At this point, you need to put it in the fridge to firm up. The instructions don’t tell you to do this, but if you don’t, you go from this:

to this:

No panic. Stick the top layer on and ice the top and sides of the cake, poke a wooden skewer through to the bottom to make sure the top doesn’t slide off, then stick it in the fridge to firm it up. Smooth the whole thing around with some more icing once it’s looking less sloppy.

Then 4 yr old Alex asks if he can decorate it with sprinkles. So you say ‘yes’.

I was going to tastefully top it with white chocolate scrolls or something along these lines, but this was more fun to watch.

“Chefs don’t lick their fingers when they’re cooking”. He said this phrase a lot. He so very desperately wanted to lick his fingers, but I was hovering like a bird of prey, so he just talked himself down.

Anyway. It’s a moist, flavourful cake and the icing is reminiscient of cheesecake. Just delicious.

Yeah, you might want to go a bit more formal with your decoration…

but however you decorate it; do make it.

Here’s the recipe.

Orange and White Chocolate cake

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6oz unsalted butter, softened
6oz caster sugar
zest of 3 oranges and juice of 1 orange
4 eggs, separated
4oz self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4oz ground almonds

Icing
8oz white chocolate
200ml carton creme fraiche

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F
Grease and line two 20cm/8″ sandwich tins

Cream the butter, sugar and zest until fluffy.
Beat in the egg yolks.
Add the flour, baking powder and ground almonds and fold in.
Add the orange juice and gently fold in.
Whisk the egg whites until just holding their shape and gently fold in in 3 additions.
Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 30 mins.
Cool in the tins for 5 mins then turn out and cool on a wire rack completely.

For the icing, put the chocolate in a bowl on top of a saucepan of barely simmering water. Be very careful it doesn’t overheat.
Take the bowl off the saucepan and set to one side to cool to room temperature.
Using a hand whisk, beat the creme fraiche until it thickens and holds its shape.
Blend the chocolate into it.
Put the icing in the fridge to firm up a little then use to sandwich the two cakes together and ice on top. Alternatively, ice between the cakes and all over.
Decorate as you wish – sprinkles, chocolate scrolls, more orange zest, whatever tickles your fancy.