almondy orange cake/orangey almond cake

It's bloody freezing in Paris right now so I wanted to make something a bit wintry and christmassy but I didn't have any cinnamon/ginger/clove flavours so I decided to go with orange. This cake is so good slightly warm with a cup of tea (what isn't?).

Orange and Almond Cake:

• 170g caster sugar
• 170g butter
• 170g self-raising flour
• 2 big eggs
• 40g ground almonds
• Pinch of salt
• Rind and the juice of two pretty fat oranges 
• Flaked almonds (you can miss these out)
• Some brown sugar for sprinkling (you can miss this out too)

Preheat oven to 180c. Mix the butter and sugar together until fluffy then tip in the flour, eggs, salt and ground almonds. Stir until smooth then pour the mixture into a medium sized loaf tin. Sprinkle the flaked almonds and the sugar over the top and baked for around 45 mins. Remove from oven taking care not to touch the top of the cake with your fingers as the sugar on top with get REALLY hot and burn burn burn. 

Just a coffee please...

This weekend I was off to the country helping out at a party. I made six cakes - lemon drizzle , orange drizzle , chocolate and orange , chocolate, coffee and walnut, and banana choc-chip. I've posted most of these recipes before (click the links!) but here are the others:

Coffee and Walnut Cake:

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 big-ish eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• Splash of strong coffee 
• 100g chopped up walnuts (keep them chunky)

Pre-heat oven to 180c. Mix the butter and sugar together really well then add the flour, eggs, salt and coffee and stir. Fold in the walnuts then tip the mixture into a tin (I used a loaf tin) and pop in the oven for around half an hour.

Coffee Icing:

• 125g butter (softened up a bit)
• 200g icing sugar
• Splash of strong coffee
• Pinch of salt
• Some walnuts for the top

Mix the butter, sugar and salt whilst adding the coffee in small splashes until it's nice and silky and a lovely caramel (...or coffee) colour. Spread it over your cake once it's properly cool and then sprinkle the walnuts on top, ta-da!

The banana cake I made was a little too stodgy for my liking so I won't post the recipe I used but instead lead you here . My mum sent me this link so I'm going to follow these tips next time. 

My favourite banana cake recipe is always this one as it's so moist and tasty and has a kind of carrot-cake vibe to it. Although the one I made was a little dense it still tasted pretty good, also the kids had picked most of the cream-cheese topping off it before it even reached the party and it still disappeared super quick so I'll not label it a complete failure.