A perfect combination

… the “old” meeting the “new”.

In Book alert! I wrote about Claudia Roden and her books.

In All around the book shelves I mentioned that the perfect combination in a cookery book would be history and recipes too - here's one that is definitely in the “desert island/burning building” category.

Claudia Roden's “The Book of Jewish Food” was first published in the UK in 1997 and is divided into The Ashkenazi World and style of cooking and The Sephardi World with its many styles of cooking.

By “old” in the above title I do not disrespect – I just mean that by modern standards it's probably considered to be so - it's 19 years is old. I have read one particular recipe in this book from The Sephardi World section so many times I could recite it without any prompt.

It is :

Gateau a l'Orange

(Orange Cake)

2 oranges

6 eggs

250g sugar

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

Wash the oranges and boil them whole for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until they are very soft.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the orange blossom water, baking powder and almonds and mix well. *Cut open the oranges, remove the pips and purée in a food processor. Mix thoroughly with the egg and almond mixture and pour into a 23cm cake tin – lined with baking parchment, preferably non-stick and with a removable base. Bake in a pre-heated oven 190c/170fan/Gas 5 for an hour. Let it cool before turning out.

What put me off baking this cake was the boiling of the oranges.

Now for the “new” - it should really read “up to date” since I suppose it's not rocket science to use a microwave. Instead of boiling the oranges, microwave them for 8 minutes on high. I used 3 medium sized oranges (as a guide 67-74mm) and turned after 4 minutes. Make sure your fruits are in a covered vented microwave container. Continue with the recipe at *.

I'm not a cake eater generally but in the interests of being true to the art I tasted this and – I know I shouldn't say it of my own efforts – it was everything I like in a cake – moist and the depth of the orange flavour was really good. Everyone else who had a slice loved it too.

Here's what it looked like :

I rest my case!