Has anyone made cakes with the whole fruit, skin and all? Ive seen recipes out there, never tried it but very tempted.
Im thinking citrus fruit - lemons, oranges, grapefruit. Do you remove pips or blitz them up too?

Vanessa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2018 06:06AM by Vanessa45.

I have a beautiful orange cake recipe where you blitz the skin and all in the food processor. Let me know if you want me to dig it out

Here's the recipe for the old favourite Mediterranean Orange Cake. Our oranges are seedless, but if you are not sure you could cut each one in half after it is cooked and remove any seeds.

Mediterranean Orange Cake (2 days)
23cm tin

3 oranges – cut off tops and bottoms, simmer 2 hours, drain, puree. Cover and chill several hours or overnight
15g baking powder
310g ground almonds
8 eggs
310g caster sugar
flaked almonds

Grease and line tin. Heat oven to 170 C.
Mix baking powder & almonds together.
Mix eggs & sugar together until just combined. Do not beat.
Measure 375g of orange puree, add to eggs along with almond mixture.
Mix gently until well combined. Pour into tin and scatter with flaked almonds.
Bake 70 - 80 min. Cool overnight in tin.

Vanessa, Annabel Langbien has a delicious recipe for Orange Lightening Cake which uses a whole orange. I have made it several times and my friends enjoy a slice (or two). First time I made it I misread my sister's scales and measured almost twice as much butter as is required and it was jolly good.

regards Gran

I will second what Gran has said (altho I haven't executed the nice sounding butter mistake Gran has made!) . It's a favourite with me too so easy to make and stays moist and doesn't need icing.
Regards,
Dawn.

Thanks guys, could I substitute lemon skin and all instead of orange?

Claudia Roden's Orange cake is my go to special occasion cake. Almost identical to the recipe which TPANDAV gives above, with a light orange syrup and softly whipped cream to serve it with, as a dessert rather than a slice to have with a cup of tea.

Here's the recipe I have and it is so easy, but so moist. Received many years ago from Trademe message boards

MAGICAL ORANGE CAKE

1 orange, washed and processed to a pulp
125 g melted butter
1 c sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 c self-rising flour, Sifted

Mix all together in food processor, pour into lined loaf tin and bake at 180c for approx 35-40mins or ready when tested with skewer. Doubled makes a lovely ring tin cake. Ice with orange icing

Vanessa45 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks guys, could I substitute lemon skin and all
> instead of orange?

I suspect lemons would make it too bitter, but give it a try and let us know how it turns out.

Good recipes here. I have made an orange cake from an old Taste magazine umpteen times. Very similar or identical to Lorna's recipe. Everything gets mixed up in a food processor. However, I always cut the peel off first and then remove most of the pith if it is too thick so that the cake does not turn out bitter. If you use a recipe where the whole fruit is boiled first you naturally don't have that option. Have you ever had a cake with boiled fruit that tasted slightly bitter or do you think you might have been lucky in that you had oranges where the pith was not excessive?

Chris Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
... Have you ever
> had a cake with boiled fruit that tasted slightly
> bitter or do you think you might have been lucky
> in that you had oranges where the pith was not
> excessive?

I've never had any problems with bitterness even using very fresh home grown oranges with a thick layer of pith. I think the very large quantity of sugar and the acid from the juice balances it all out, the same way that marmalade is balanced in flavour.

TPANDAV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chris Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> ... Have you ever
> > had a cake with boiled fruit that tasted
> slightly
> > bitter or do you think you might have been
> lucky
> > in that you had oranges where the pith was not
> > excessive?
>
> I've never had any problems with bitterness even
> using very fresh home grown oranges with a thick


Thanks for your explanation, TPANDAV. The thought of ending up with a bitter tasting cake has kept me from trying a boiled orange cake. I will give it a go now because I am ready for a change and all those ground almonds in your recipe sound delicious.
> layer of pith. I think the very large quantity
> of sugar and the acid from the juice balances it
> all out, the same way that marmalade is balanced
> in flavour.

Give it a go! There is a good reason that it's become a classic.

I think the boiling reduces the bitterness too. I've made the boiled orange style of cake, and no bitterness there, and also the blitz the raw orange style, but as muffins, and never had any bitterness.

That Magical Orange Cake sounds like the perfect recipe. Thanks, I will also give it ago with lemon, maybe lemon and orange combination..
Vanessa

We were given a large bag of Mandarins one year Vanessa, and I made the Magical Orange Cake recipe with mandarins - they were too sour to eat, so I just did a guesstimate of how many to use and doubled the recipe

I love the taste and juiciness of tangelos but they are so hard to peel that much of the juice is wasted. I wonder if they would be successful in this recipe. I have the Annabel Langbein recipe for Orange Lightening Cake which has 1/2 cup of water in the ingredients. As the tangelos are so juicy, this quantity of water may need adjusting.

I have made Irene's recipe using mandarins. It was delicious.
I am not sure how lemons would go but someone gave me some Mexican limes and some limequats. I am going to try a mix of those and mandarins. It might be a case of Kia kaha.

Marnie, limes and limequats may not be pleasant in the cake. Lime juice does not respond well to being heated, it loses its freshness and turns bitter.

Thanks for that information, TPANDAV.

If you have excess limes, I would highly recommend a Key Lime Pie.

I use this recipe, with a couple of variations. I can't locate my notes at this moment though. I know I put zest in the crust and I think also in the filling, but press it through a sieve as I'm pouring it into the crust and this removes the zest and any icky egg bits. It's also ringing a bell that I make the filling first and refrigerate for an hour or so before pouring in the crust and cooking. I do the crust while the filling is in the fridge.

[www.jamieoliver.com]

Thanks, Jenna. That looks a good recipe and I appreciate your tips.
The Mexican lime juice (the ones that have bright orange peel) seem to be much sharper than Tahitian limes. I don't mind that at all as I don't like overly sweet food. That goes for chocolate, as well.

Now that we have turned this thread into a lime discussion does anyone have any lovely things to do with the Kaffir Lime fruit, I have a large tree with tons of fruit I never use. My sister and I used them for Gin and Tonics once and our lips went numb, very funny at the time but not to be repeated The flavour is very distinctive and makes everything taste like Thai curry!

I like Kaffir Lime zest and juice in possets - there is a good recipe in Ottolenghi's book "Sweet" or you could try my recipe for lemon possets and substitute the zest and part of the juice with Kaffir Lime.

Makes 4 small glasses.

500ml double cream
150g caster sugar
75ml lemon juice

Put the cream and caster sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat so that the mixture doesn't boil over, and let it bubble enthusiastically for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly.

Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and leave to settle. Pour into four small wine glasses or cups and leave to cool. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

The zest can also be used to flavour shortbread or cakes, wherever you would otherwise use lemon or lime zest.

I have a favourite muffin recipe which can be made with finely chopped raw oranges or limes, skin and all, and includes sultanas and pieces of crystallised ginger. I sometimes chop the fruit in advance and freeze it - the chopping is fiddly, so it means I have the fruit ready to go when I want to make them and don't have much time.

I used to make a muffin recipe with the raw oranges, it had dates in it also which I liked. My daughter puts sultanas but I prefer my recipe that had the dates although haven't made for a long time
the muffins were lovely and 2 others on the thread have said they also do muffins

I don't like the boiled orange cake one with all the ground almonds that some here like to make but I do like a raw orange cake similar to the Magic Orange given here

I have also made a lemon cake a few times that I like, it is not too sour although once with very thick pith I did cut some away
Have not tried limes although I have a lime tree so should try that