Skye McAlpine's Orange Loaf Recipe From 'A Table Full of Love'
Recipe from A Table Full of Love: Recipes to Comfort, Seduce, Celebrate & Everything Else In Between by Skye McAlpine (Bloomsbury)
There are moments in life when only a loaf cake will do: when you want something sweet, but not too sweet; when you crave the soothing comfort of plain not-quite-bread-not-quite-cake cake. This loaf cake, dense with almonds, mellow flavored, lightly spiced and so.ly scented with the juice and zest of an orange, is for just those moments. And misguidedly perhaps, because it doesn’t come layered with buttercream or rolled fondant icing, because it looks like a plain cake, it’s something I’ll happily let the boys help themselves to at will.
Orange Loaf Cake
Packaged up in a cake box or airtight container, this will keep for two or three days.
HANDS ON TIME:
10 minutes
HANDS OFF TIME:
30–35 minutes in the oven
SERVES 6–8
butter, for the pan
3 eggs
½ cup plus 1 tbsp superfine sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (100g) all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup (100g) almond meal
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
flaky sea salt
confectioners’ sugar, to dust
Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 2lb-capacity loaf pan, then line it with parchment paper.
Separate the eggs. Combine the yolks in a large mixing bowl with the sugar and whisk until they turn a light, lemony color. Now add the orange zest and juice and whisk together until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, almond meal, spices and a generous pinch of salt and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
In a second, spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they look like fluffy clouds, then fold them into the cake batter, trying to keep as much of the air in there as possible.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and set in the oven for 30–35 minutes, until a knife comes out clean when inserted to the middle. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes for so, then turn it out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
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Skye McAlpine
Shares her passion for cooking and entertaining and the inspiration behind her beautiful new book ‘A Table Full of Love’. Plus, she shares her go-to tips for hosting, her home line, and more.