Thin, soft orange and hazelnut cake, soaked in orange syrup, is served in slices with a salad of strawberries and oranges, and mascarpone.
For the cake
| 125 g | Butter |
| 1 tsp | Vanilla extract |
| 200 g | Brown sugar |
| 1 | Egg |
| 2 Tbsp | Orange flower water, optional |
| 1 | Orange, zest only (Main) |
| 100 g | Flour |
| 100 g | Hazelnuts, finely ground (Main) |
| ¼ cup | Hazelnuts, coarsely chopped for the top of the cake (Main) |
For the syrup
| 125 ml | Water |
| 1 | Orange, juice only |
| 35 g | Caster sugar |
For the salad, and to serve
| 250 g | Strawberries, hulled and sliced (Main) |
| 1 | Orange, zest only |
| 3 | Oranges, peeled with a sharp knife (leave no pith), segments cut into small wedges in between the natural divisions of the fruit, juice squeezed from the remains of the oranges after cutting |
| 200 g | Mascarpone (Main) |
Directions
To make the cake
- Heat the oven to 200C. Butter and paper the bottom of a 10cm x 35cm shallow tin (or equivalent volume in a different shaped tin).
- Beat the butter, vanilla and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg.
- Stir in the orange flower water (if using), zest, flour and ground hazelnuts and spread into the tin. Sprinkle the top with the chopped nuts.
- Place in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes our clean.
- Remove from the oven, cool and take out of the tin.
To make the syrup
- While the cake is cooking, put the water, juice and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 3 minutes then remove from the heat.
- Once the cake is cooked put it on to a deepish serving platter and pour the syrup evenly over it. Cool, spooning the syrup over the cake occasionally.
To make the salad
Put the