I used this cake as the main cake at the Baby Shower I cakered for a few weeks ago, and have made it a few times in the past but now that I am gluten intolerant, will be making it a whole lot more, I had forgotten how much I like it!!
The recipe is from a cake decorating book called Planet Cake.
The recipe makes a monster-sized batch of cupcakes or large two round cakes. The most time consuming part is preparing the oranges, however it can be a very useful hour or so to do other things too, like feed a hungry little toddler!!
Start off with 2 to 3 oranges and clean their skin well. Put them in a large saucepan with enough water to cover them. Put a small plate on top of the oranges to keep them submerged in the water (otherwise they float) and bring the water to the boil. Reduce the heat and let the oranges simmer for an hour. After this time, they should be quite soft to touch.
Drain the water and let them rest until they are cool enough to handle. Cut each orange into quarters, remove the pips, then puree in a blender or food processor.
Meanwhile, beat 8 eggs (yep, EIGHT) with 420g of sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Beat for about 5 minutes until the mixture is quite pale and very fluffy.
Slowly beat in 420g of almond meal and then 420g of the orange puree. The mixture is supposed to be quite runny as it is a very moist cake, however it still needs to resemble cake mixture, so add more almond meal if you need.
Pour into the tins and bake in 180 degree over (350F) for 1 hour 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely in the tin.
I think the icing that best suits this cake is a cream cheese frosting. Mix a few tablespoons of butter and a few tablespoons of cream cheese with as much icing sugar as is needed to make a nice thick icing.
