Orange and Lemon Syrup Cake

 

A luscious orange syrup drizzled cake is perfect just served with a dollop of thick yoghurt. The sweet, sour, and refreshing flavour of fresh citrus fruits absolutely infuses this cake.  These are the flavours of our Summer and will brighten up any Winter blues in the Northern Hemisphere as well. This cake is happiness on a plate. Why not bake it this weekend?

Today's recipe is from the Monday Morning Cooking Club recipe book, which originated when a group of Jewish Women in Sydney began meeting every Monday morning to cook, eat, drink lots of tea, and discuss endless recipes. That's my kind of morning.  The book features some of the most treasured family recipes that have been passed down through generations. Each recipe begins with a short story of the cook and their history of the dish, introducing the reader to the culturally diverse community where the recipes originated. It's thanks to Leah that we have this recipe.  I don't own a copy of the book as yet, but it's on my wish list. 

This is the easiest cake to make. I like to measure out all of my cake ingredients first, grease and line the tin, and then it takes no time at all to make the cake batter and place it in the oven. The photos are from the first time I made this cake for my Book club group, and they really enjoyed this cake. We had just had a very robust and enjoyable discussion about Trent Dalton's latest book "Lola in the Mirror" which was set in Brisbane, Queensland during the Summer of 2023 mostly around the flooded Brisbane River.  The book is gritty, confronting, heartwarming, and magical and the central characters are from the "houseless", not homeless community of Brisbane. I found parts of it very challenging to read, but it was also a very compelling read.

My Book club group members naturally love books, but we also love our food. Classic Zucchini and Bacon slice, Curried egg sandwiches, and this Orange and Lemon Syrup Cake with cups of tea sated our appetites after a lot of talking in my lounge room.

Let's bake:

INGREDIENTS:

250 g (9 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

230 g or 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar

3 eggs, separated

250 g (10 1/2 oz sour cream)

Finely grated zest of 2 oranges

265 g (9 1/4 oz)/ 1 3/4 cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda (baking soda)

SYRUP

Juice of 2 oranges

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons

175 g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

Method:

SERVES 10

Preheat the oven to 160 deg C (315 deg F). Grease and line a 24 cm (9 1/2 inch) springform cake tin.

In your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

Beat in the egg yolks, sour cream and the zest. 

Sift the flour with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then fold into the butter mixture.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but make sure they are not too dry. Add the whites to the butter and flour mixture and carefully fold together to combine.

 Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

SYRUP:

About 5 minutes before the cake is ready, make the syrup by combining the juices and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved, then simmer until thickened and sticky, about 10-15 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven, allow to stand for 10 minutes and then pour the boiling syrup over the top. Allow to cool before removing from the tin.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or thick yoghurt.

This cake would also be lovely as a dessert. I would serve it with ice-cream.

Wishing you all a very enjoyable weekend, hope you have something enjoyable planned.

Happy baking
Pauline