My wife hardly ever asks me to make something, but she inspires me to make everything! She also flips through numerous foodie sites and will start telling me about a recipe or it’s ingredients to see if I’m interested in the dish. Sweet or savory, this is her area of expertise – research and subliminally controlling me – her husband!! Often the recipe inspires me with ingredients or processes, but she knows a sure fire way to peak my interest is to show me an old recipe. This time, she found a recipe from 1941, handwritten and reproduced by a family member on a site called Cooking with Nana Ling. This is an Orange and Walnut Loaf (no matter how you slice it, it is cake baked in a loaf pan!) that will become another favorite.
I like this cake because it is a simple recipe that comes together really well. I’ve made it a couple of times, once using the hand blender and the second, using a whisk. I like the whisk method, less to clean up and equally delicious results. The key with the whisk method is to soften the butter to almost the melting stage then cream it with the sugar (citrus sugar). I did stick with the bones and most of the meat on this recipe, only changing where I thought “well why not!” As always, I’ve listed my changes in italics and brackets next to the original.
Some of the “well why not!” changes include replacing regular sugar for citrus sugar, chopping up the orange after zesting and juicing – but just the flesh, and adding it to the batter, and the last change was to coat the walnuts in some citrus sugar. All I did was throw the chopped walnuts in the container which held my orange juice and added about 1 heaping tbsp. of citrus sugar and stirred it all together – it works!
The cake is delicious both ways, of course the one with the pulp was moister but it did increase the baking time from the suggested 35 – 45 minutes to 45 – 55 minutes. Well worth the wait – this is good cake – one bowl, few ingredients, great taste!
I know you will enjoy this easy to make cake. Great for any day of the week – a special occasion or not! Wear a mask, get the vaccine, wash your hands and above all be safe! As always – enjoy!
Ingredients
115 grams butter (1 stick/8 tbsp)
1/2 cup caster sugar (orange citrus sugar)
2 eggs
1 cup self-rising flour (I used 1 cup flour with 2 tsp baking powder, I ran out of self-rising flour)
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1 large orange (making nearly 1/2 cup juice), plus zest (I used the zest and all the orange pulp, no skin/pith)
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon rapadura sugar (or brown or raw sugar) – (or citrus sugar)
Instructions
Grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan and line with parchment.
Pre-heat oven to 350f
Combine the flour and almond flour – mix and set aside
Cream butter and citrus sugar – if doing this by hand – (remember we used to), get the butter in a really soft, almost melted state. This makes creaming so much easier
Add eggs and zest and whisk again to combine
The orange should give you close to ½ a cup (mine was 3/8ths of a cup)
Add flour mixture and orange juice alternately stirring to combine
Pour mixture into prepared pan, scatter the sugared walnuts over the top (I just did a line down the center of the cake)
Bake for 45 – 55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (note the original recipe said to bake for 35 – 40 minutes, same size tin – so, I don’t know what to tell you. Our ovens today are superior to the ovens in the 40s, or so I thought! :))
Let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan and slice and devour shortly thereafter
Enjoy as is or with some summer (yup still summer) berries and softly whipped cream
Well why not! (aka Suggestions and/or changes)
Substitute citrus sugar for regular sugar
Throw in some “add-ins” like your favorite berries
Swap the walnuts for the equivalent quantity of almonds; it will complement the almond flour in the batter
