Sarah's-orange-almond-gooze-cake!

So we had some sad looking oranges sitting on the bench- and no one had the heart to chop them up into those 'half time' segments that remind us all of our sporting days... but my sister is in town and she just has a way with dejected fruit. Somehow, she manages to raise them up and shine a light on their more positive features. This is the recipe for a cake that she pulled out of thin air to rescue our sad citrus- and what a cake it was- moist and pungent and full of still crunchy almond slivers. The lesson here is, boil the orange and blend it all! ALL I say! 

The natural oils in the orange rind will impart a beautiful fragrance and orange essence that is much deeper than just the juice...

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
  
• 1 & 1/4 cup caster sugar
  
• 1 cup almond meal
  
• 1 cup almond slivers
  
• 1 tsp cardamom
  
• 1 cup plain flour
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• 1 whole orange
  

Method:

Boil the whole orange in a saucepan of water for 1 hour- making sure that the whole orange is covered and occasionally turning. 

Beat together the eggs and sugar, then mix in the almond meal, almond slivers, cardamom, flour and baking soda. 

Cut up the boiled orange and discard any seeds, then blend the whole orange (skin and all) and stir it through the rest of the cake mixture. 

Grease a ring tin, pour the mixture in and bake for one hour at 180 degrees C, or until firm and golden. 

Cool in tin, then turn out and serve.

Note: The cake is nice and moist on its own- but it's even better served with this almond & orange 'gooze' sauce:

Gooze sauce ingredients:

• Juice of half an orange
  
• Long strips of orange rind (2 tablespoons)
  
• 1 tsp cardamom (fresh ground is best)
  
• Almond syrup (or cordial), equal to the orange juice
  

Gooze sauce method:

Mix all ingredients together and allow to sit so that flavours can combine. The longer you let it sit, the better it is. 

Pour this over the cake just before you serve it and watch it absorb into the top. 

If you like your cake moist and textured- then save those last few sad oranges from the bottom of the bowl and get to work!