Orange and Almond Gin Cake

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Orange and Almond Gin Cake

Delicious gin themed cakes seem to be an annual tradition here at Small City, and its all thanks to Provender Brown's September Wee G & T Festival and Perthshire's leading patisserie expert, Graeme Maxwell of Maxwell's Desserts.

Last year we had the fabulous Rhubarb and Ginger Gin Cheesecake, followed by a Plum & Vanilla Gin Liqueur variation at Christmas. This year, Graeme has created a stunning Orange and Almond Gin Cake using Persie Gin's Zesty Citrus variety.

The result is this irresistably moist, and deliciously moreish almond cake which is baked before adding the gin to give it a real kick-you-in-pants flavour sensation! We've served it with grilled peaches but you could add a scoop of orange sorbet or pour over some double cream. 

You'll obvs want to pour a Persie's Zesty Citrus Gin as an accompaniment - Simon and co recommend you serve it 50/50 with naturally light tonic and bring out the key botanicals with a little torn mint and a thumbnail of lime peel.

As always, we'd love to see how you serve yours - please do send us your own images of our Small City Recipes or upload to social and tag #SmallCityRecipes so we can find you! 

Happy gin-cake loving!

Nicki 

Ingredients

  • 2 large oranges
  • 250g of caster sugar
  • 6 eggs/300g whole egg
  • 1 tsp (GF) baking powder (Not all are gluten free, we use Doctor Oetker)
  • 250g of ground almonds
  • For the Syrup
  • 50g of granulated sugar
  • 50g of water
  • 30g of Gin (Persie Citrus) or to taste

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 150˚C/gas mark 2

    2. Place the oranges in a pot and cover with water. Boil the oranges until very soft. This will take up to 3 hours, be sure to top up the water throughout so the oranges stay submerged

    3. Remove the oranges from the water and allow to cool. Cut in half, remove the seeds and blend in a food processer. Pour into a fine strainer to strain off as much of the residual liquid as possible (this might not be necessary if you have a nice thick pulp) Set 300g of the orange pulp aside and freeze any left over to put towards the next cake!

    4. In a large bowl or food mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar, baking powder and ground almonds together for 2 minutes. Add in the orange pulp and whisk again for another minute.

    5. Line a 22cm round cake tin with baking parchment around the sides and on the bottom then pour in the cake batter. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for around 1 hour until it's a nice golden brown colour. Remove and allow to cool before using a cocktail stick to evenly spike the top surface of the cake all over.

    6. While the cake is cooling, make the syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small pan. Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat. Add the Persie Citrus Gun to finish the syrup. Soak the cake in the syrup by either pouring or spooning it on to the top of the cake.

    7. Allow cake to cool completely then dust the surface of the cake with icing sugar just before serving and enjoy.