Baking Advent Calendar day 10

To be honest with you when I started this exercise I thought I was being a bit ambitious and that there might be some gaps that I’d have to try and count for, but so far so good and we’ve made it to Baking Advent Calendar day 10 without a break.. Today’s bake is orange and pistachio cakes, or more specially in the original recipe blood orange and pistachio cakes. 

As you would expect the flesh of blood oranges is a much darker colour than that of normal varieties and I find that the taste is richer and sweeter. It’s this dark colour that makes blood oranges the best ones to use for these cakes.

Blood oranges are grown in southern mediterranean areas and if their availability in the UK is anything to go by they have a fairly short season. I find they tend to only be in the shops in late winter through to mid spring. If you do go looking for them you’ll sometimes find shops call them blush oranges. Presumably that’s because some people are be a bit squeamish about a food item with blood in it’s name.

The recipe I use for making these cakes is from Honey & Co-The Baking Book by Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich. This book is full of recipes that reflect Sarit & Itamar’s Middle Eastern heritage and is a joy to bake from. I’ve yet to visit the Honey & Co restaurant that they own in London but it’s high on my wish list

This recipe makes 10 muffin size cakes.

Ingredients for the cakes

• 250g unsalted butter
• 250g caster sugar
• zest of 1 orange  (ideally a blood orange)
• 125g ground almonds
• 125g ground pistachios
• 4 eggs
• 250g self raising flour
• pinch of salt

Ingredients for the topping

• 120g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 3 to 4 oranges (ideally blood oranges

Method

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and grease the baking tray or muffin tins that you are going to use.
• Mix the sugar and cornflour for the topping together and put a teaspoon of the mix in each cup of the baking tin. Shake the tin to ensure the sugar covers the base.
• Use a sharp knife to cut away the skin from the oranges. Cut each orange horizontally into four slices. Place a slice in the bottom of each cup on the baking tray.
• Cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest until pale and fluffy. Add the ground pistachios and almonds and  mix. Add the eggs one at a time, mix to combine each egg before adding the next.
• Add the flour and salt and mix until you have a smooth batter.
• Place the batter into each of the cups on your baking tray.
• Place the tray in the over and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the tray around and bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes. This should ensure an even bake.
• Leave the cakes to cool in the tray for 5 to 10 minutes then turn them out so that the orange is on top. If you leave them to cool for longer than this it increases the risk of the orange sticking and the cakes not being intact when you turn them out.