Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake

This is a recipe from the book French. I'm not sure why it's so serious but admittedly it's a really simple cake to make, with minimal washing up to do. An excellent recipe for anyone who is baking for the first time. Surprisingly, it turned out well, moist and not too dense. It is full of orange flavour (as expected of a orange cake), sweet with a slight bitter taste to counter the sweetness.

I substituted Cointreau with rum as I did not have Cointreau around. I must admit it is probably not the best alternative, and I must imagine the cake would be much much better with Cointreau.

This orange cake is good on it's own and yet even better when served warm (microwave 15sec) with a dallop of vanilla ice-cream... Mmmm.. absolutely divine.


Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake

1 orange, weighing around 150g, washed well and diced, pips removed
200g sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour, sifted
a small pinch of salt
180g butter, melted and cooled a little

Orange Syrup Ingredients:
60ml orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1-2 tablespoons Cointreau

Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Grease and line a 24cm diameter springform cake tin with baking paper. Place the diced orange in the bowl of a food processor with the sugar and process until very smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the flour and salt and combine for 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the butter all at once. Transfer to the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes; test for doneness by inserting a bamboo skewer--it should emerge clean and dry.

While the cake is cooking, make the orange syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the orange and lemon juices and the sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add the Cointreau to taste and simmer for 1 minute more.

When the cake is ready, remove from the oven but leave in the tin to cool for 5-10 minutes. Use a bamboo skewer to pierce the cake all over, then slowly spoon the syrup over the cake and leave until completely cool before turning out. Important to leave it to cool so that the syrup can form a nice sticky "crust" on the cake.