It was my Dad's birthday recently. In my family we have a fondness for orange cakes. My mum routinely made this one for celebrations and it's perfect. But I can't help feel that in her zeal to use every last bit of a piece of fruit, she might have been tempted by this recipe, from American lifestyle magazine stalwart Sunset. It uses all of the orange - well, not the pips - but the rest of it, blended up into a purée.
No need for boiling beforehand, as per Middle-eastern orange cake, just chop the fresh fruit roughly and blitz in a food processor. It's not as sweet as a cake made with just zest and juice, more complex in flavour and texture. Notes of bitterness and flecks of fruit lend a sophistication to something so simple. Because of the high moisture content from the fresh fruit, this cake keeps really well and in fact its flavours only intensify over time - good to know if you're in the market for something to make ahead.
