Almond Cake in Orange Syrup

  Posted on March 22, 2010  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

Get Ready for Passover

Claudia Roden has written numerous cookbooks on Middle Eastern food.  She was born in 1936 in Cairo, Egypt.  She lives in North London – apparently BLOCKS from our old flat!  If I had only known, I would have stalked her!

This recipe is from The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York.  The recipes are Sephardic Jewish recipes.  Sephardic Jews are from the Mediterranean areas, Spain, and Italy.  It is a wonderful book that one of my best friends, Jessica, told me about.  I have had many a meals with her and her wonderful family.

Almond Cake in Orange Syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch cake pan with vegetable shortening and dust with finely ground matzo meal.

For the Cake
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 oranges
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup blanched almonds

Separate all of the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks along with the sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Chop up the blanched almonds, and mix both the chopped and ground almonds into the batter.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.

Pour the mixture into cake pan and bake for about one hour.

For the Syrup 
2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup sugar

Make the syrup while the cake is baking. Pour the orange juice and sugar into a cooking pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir with wooden spoon until all of the sugar is dissolved.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool. When the cake is cool and out of the baking pan, place it in a casserole dish or deep pan. Poke many holes in the top with a toothpick or fork. Pour the syrup on the cake.

Ideally, the deep dish should just contain the cake and syrup. The cake will absorb the syrup over the next few hours. Leave to soak overnight.