Whole Orange & Almond Mini Cakes with Orange Syrup

Winter may not be my favourite season, but the one thing I do love about it is the abundance of juicy oranges. We’ve been having fresh squeezed juice every day, lots of Orange & Fennel salad and of course, Orange & Almond Syrup cake.

I love this recipe, when you boil the whole oranges it perfumes the kitchen with a lovely citrusy fragrance. This recipe is a mashup of several whole orange recipes I’ve tried, this one uses flour and almond meal, handy for when you only have a little bit of almond meal hiding at the back of your pantry.

The syrup makes the cakes very sweet and sticky, sort of like a marmalade pudding, so mini portions are just enough. Delicious for afternoon tea with a cup of earl grey, or warm them and serve with a dollop of thick cream or fancy ice cream for an easy dessert.

Whole Orange & Almond Mini Cakes with Orange Syrup

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Inactive Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes

The syrup makes the cakes very sweet and sticky, sort of like a marmalade pudding, so mini portions are just enough. Delicious for afternoon tea with a cup of earl grey, or warm them and serve with a dollop of thick cream or fancy ice cream for an easy dessert.

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Ingredients

• FOR CAKE
• 2 oranges
• 125g butter, melted
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup (40g) almond meal
• Oil or butter spray
• FOR SYRUP
• 2 oranges - one sliced, 1 juiced
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.

Grease a large12 cup muffin tray (3/4 cup capacity)

Place oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil. Drain and repeat, simmer/boil for 1-1.5hrs until soft.

Set aside until cool enough to handle and then puree with a stick blender or food processor.

Transfer to a bowl. Stir in butter, milk, eggs, flour, sugar and almond meal until combined. Pour mixture equally into muffin tray, fill only 3/4 way up.

Bake for 25 to 30minutes or until a skewer inserted in cake comes out clean.

While cake is baking prepare the syrup.

Cut one oranges into thin slices and set aside. Place juice of 1 orange orange, sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.

Add orange slices and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the slices are transparent.

Lay out on a wire rack and continue cooking syrup until well reduced.

When cakes are baked, stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack over a tray and then cut rounded tops off cakes and turn cut side down on a wire rack.

(you can eat the tops later when no one is looking)

While the cake us still warm, use a skewer to make small holes over the surface

Drizzle with the syrup. Place orange slices on top of cake, twisting them to form a decorative pattern.

Notes

All My Poppet recipes use Australian standard 250ml cup measurements unless otherwise specified.

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