sticky demerara orange and almond loaf cake

sticky demerera orange
and almond cake

I seem to be obsessed with citrus fruit at the moment. It probably isn't that surprising since apart from stores of apples and pears, British fruit isn't in season. But I am more than happy to satisfy my need for fruit by eating some that is in season somewhere else. Which doesn't strictly adhere to my intention to only cook seasonally and locally. But I've always liked bending the rules, particularly when they are my own.

So in the past few weeks, apart from gloating over my haul of citron beldi (like a fat, scaly dragon covetously protecting her precious hoard), I seem to return home every day with yet more citrus fruit, from blood oranges to minneolas. The blood oranges have to be a given really because their magic is in the secret lurking under their skin - a beautiful deep pink flesh and juice. Truly glorious stuff.

But this is the first year I have cooked with minneolas, a type of tangelo. These are a cross between grapefruit and a tangerine and they are beautifully sweet without being sickly. They also appeal to my love of form, with their rough bell shape, and my love of cartoon fruit as they seem to have a funny little bobbly noses (or nipples). Fortunately I have managed not to name my minneolas so I have actually been able to use them, otherwise little Ronnie, Rupert and Bob will stare at me reproachfully from a bowl in the kitchen until they dry out completely and make their final trip to the compost heap.

So I return again to one of the first cakes I ever baked and one of my favourites. It is one of Nigel Slater's recipes - originally his demerara lemon cake with ground almonds - only this time I have used minneola oranges. It was absolutely perfect. In fact this time, I ground my own almonds. So the texture of my ground almonds as opposed to the ones you can buy ready-ground, is much rougher. I can only say that I think that it may have improved the texture of this quite rustic cake. And to be honest I didn't think you could improve on perfection, but it turns out that you can!

Since this is a Nigel Slater recipe, I am entering into Janice at Farmsgirl Kitchen Nigel Slater Dish of the Month challenge, , jointly hosted by Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate. Janice and Sue are challenging you to cook a Nigel Slater recipe every month. It will be my pleasure! This is such an enjoyable challenge and it is so enjoyable to see how everyone interprets Nigel Slater's recipes.