Chocolate Orange & Almond Cake

Wednesday, 22nd December 2010

This delicious and moist cake takes a while to make but is well worth the effort.

(Might be worth making in advance and freezing for the Christmas)

Ingredients
- 2 large oranges
- 6 large eggs
- 225g (8 oz) caster sugar
- 225g (8oz.)ground almonds
- 225g (8oz.) dark chocolate
- 2 tsp. baking powder.

Method
Either put the oranges in a small saucepan and cover completely with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 2 hours. Put a lid on to make sure too much water doesn't evaporate and top up with some more water if they are not completely immersed. After two hours take them out of the water and let them cool. Or halve the oranges, flick out the pips, and put in a bowl and cover with cling film. Put into microwave at full for 5 minutes, check to see if tender when pierced with a sharp knife, if not keep cooking until they are tender and collapse in a puddle of their own juice. Then let them cool.

Put the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and cook at medium heat until it is completely melted. (Or you can melt in a bowl over barely simmering water.) Tip all of the oranges, flesh, skin and juice, into a food processor and pulse it to a puree. You may have to scrape this down from the sides to ensure no large pieces remain- bits the size of breadcrumbs are OK. Beat up the eggs with the sugar in a large bowl until they are pale and thick and then fold in the ground almonds, the baking powder, the orange puree and the melted chocolate.

Pre-heat your oven to Gas 4, 175C, 350F. Line the base of a shallow 12" cake tin with non stick paper and grease the sides. Pour in the cake batter and bake at this temperature for 30 minutes. At this stage in my fan oven it is cooked, test by pressing gently with your fingers, it should be firm with no liquid inside. Cook for 10 or so minutes more if necessary. This cake remains very moist and it needs no icing. Also note it contains no flour so it is suitable for gluten free diets.