My Orange, Lime & Almond Bundt Cake

Servings 10 – 12              Time 2hr 40mins including cooling            Difficulty fairly easy

A light, moist cake that makes the most of the bundt tin’s patterns. With a very nice flavour too: sweet, but tangy with all that lovely “citrusness”.

Ingredients

    The cake
  • 1 large orange
  • 1 lime (reserve some juice for the topping)
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 130g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 70g butter, melted
    • The topping
  • approx. 100g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp orange juice (use half first and check consistency)
  • 1 tsp lime juice (use half first and check consistency)
  • Orange food colouring gel or paste
  • Green food colouring gel or paste

Directions

    Preparation
  1. Thoroughly butter the bundt tin and place in fridge until later. (*see tip)
  2. Put the orange in a pan of cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer for an hour. Remove and cool, or immerse in cold water for a few minutes.
  3. Pre-heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/Gas 4
  4. Butter the bundt tin a second time and return to the fridge.
  5. Roughly chop the cooled orange into chunks, discarding the pips. Whizz in a food processor until it becomes a fairly fine pulp. Set aside in a covered bowl.
    6. The Bake
  6. Whisk together the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
  7. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture, then stir in the ground almonds. Fold it all together with a large metal spoon.
  8. Add in the cooled orange pulp (about 100g), the zest of a whole lime and the juice of half a lime, plus the melted butter. Gently mix together.
  9. Take the bundt tin out of the fridge and lightly dust the interior with flour.
  10. Pour the mixture into the tin, level it with a spoon or spatula then run a knife through the mixture gently to remove any air pockets.
  11. Bake in pre-heated oven for 35 – 45 minutes (check after 35)
  12. Cool in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
    13. The topping
  13. Mix 30g – 40g icing sugar with a very small amount of water. You’re trying to achieve a thick consistency that will run slowly down the cake. This will be the white icing. Use a small spoon to dribble it down every third rivulet of the cake.
  14. Mix 30g – 40g icing sugar with a very small amount of orange juice and a squirt of orange food colouring. This will be the orange icing. With a clean spoon, dribble this in the adjacent rivulets.
  15. Mix 30g – 40g icing sugar with a very small amount of lime juice and a squirt of green food colouring. Dribble it down the remaining rivulets.

    16. * Tip: Liberally blob butter inside the tin, then place the tin in a warm oven for a few minutes. Remove and brush the melted butter into all the cracks and crevices. Be fastidious with this to avoid any sticking later.