This recipe for Moroccan Orange & Almond Cake comes from a 2010 book called Everyday Baking. I flicked through it one day in a cheapy bookshop, liked
the look of some of the recipes and bought it for £4.99. Until this day it has sat on my bookshelf unused. So I have picked a the Moroccan Orange & Almond Cake recipe for my Cookbook Challenge.I chose this recipe as I love cake flavoured with citrus so this one couldn’t fail 
to please me. Added to this was the challenge of baking with semolina, which is new to me. As is baking with cardamom, so “in for a penny in for a pound as they say”! It is a simple recipe to follow and luckily I could get my hands on all the necessary ingredients…
Moroccan Orange & Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 large orange
115g butter plus some for greasing
115g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
175g semolina
100g ground almonds
11/2 teaspoon baking powder
icing sugar for dusting
For the syrup:
300ml orange juice
130g caster sugar
8 cardamom pods, crushed
Method
Preheat the oven to 180c fan and grease and line a 20cm tin
Zest and juice the orange, half of the juice is for the cake, the other half for the syrup.
Cream the butter, sugar and zest in a bowl until light and fluffy.
In another bowl mix together the semolina, ground almonds and baking powder.
Fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternating with the orange juice. Fold 
until everything is combined together.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Once cooked, leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes. After this time remove from the tin and put onto a plate.
To make the syrup put the sugar, orange juice (I made the 300ml up with 
breakfast orange juice) and crushed cardamom pods into a saucepan.
Initially heat slowly and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Doing this slowly prevents the sugar from crystallising once it cools down again. Once everything is dissolved bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer for 5-10 minutes, until syrupy.
Using a skewer makes holes all over the top of your cake.
Strain the syrup to remove the cardamom pods and seeds.
Then spoon three quarters of the hot syrup over the cake.
Set the cake aside for 30 minutes so the syrup can be absorbed.
Before serving dust with icing sugar, and drizzle over the left over syrup if required.
The original recipe called for the cake to be served with a dollop of plain yoghurt but it really doesn’t need any accompaniments.
Slice into 8 and enjoy your moist, citrusy piece of Moroccan Orange & Almond Cake.
