passover week 2018 - fig, orange and almond cake

passover week 2018 - fig, orange and almond cake

• 3 Apr 2018

The last bake for Passover week 2018 was originally going to be an upside down rhubarb, orange and almond cake but last week rhubarb was really expensive in the fruit shop so then I was going to make raspberry frangipane tarts until the tart shells I baked inexplicably crumbled. Saturday at 5.00 p.m. I raced back to the shops to buy some figs so at the last moment, the cake became a fig, orange and almond cake. 



The cake is an adaptation of last year's lemon and almond cake with white chocolate ganache, with just a few tweaks and I kept my fingers crossed it would turn out just as well.



Once it came out of the oven I doused the cake with some orange flavoured and scented syrup and once cool, I glazed the fruit with some warmed apricot jam. I can't tell you how wonderful the cake smelt. As the recipe has such a small quantity of flour, making this cake Passover friendly was way too easy.

Here’s the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 gm and my oven is a conventional oven, not fan forced. If your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the cooking temperature by 20°C. 

Fig Orange and Almond Cake  

Topping 

4-5 small figs, sliced 

Handful of raspberries 

1 tbs caster sugar 

1-2 tbs sieved warmed apricot jam 

Cake 

2 oranges 

100g unsalted butter 

100g caster sugar 

140 g ground almonds 

2 large eggs, beaten 

25g potato starch or flour 

25g superfine matzo meal 

pinch salt 
1 tbs orange juice

Syrup 

40 g caster sugar 

60mls orange juice 

1 tsp shredded orange rind 

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Lightly grease a 18cm round tin and line the sides and base with baking parchment.  

Finely grate the rind of one of the oranges before juicing. Reserve the juice. Put the butter, the sugar and the orange rind into a bowl and mix. Do not work the mix too much or incorporate much air. Add half the ground almonds and continue mixing to fold through. Add the eggs gradually, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as you go. Add the remaining almonds, the potato starch, matzo meal and salt, and work until the mix is smooth. If the cake batter is looking a bit dry, then add a tbs of the orange juice. Gently spoon the cake batter into the tin. Decorate the top of the cake with the sliced figs and raspberries then generously sprinkle the fruit with the caster sugar. Bake for 60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. 

While the cake is in the oven, shred about a tsp of rind from the remaining orange and if necessary, juice as well. Combine the sugar with the reserved juice and shredded rind and stir until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, pour all the syrup over the cake and leave to cool. Once cool, remove the baking paper and serve the cake as it is or glazed with some apricot jam and topped with a dollop of cream. 


For such a last minute change I think the cake turned out really well and best of all, the rest of the cake is in the deep freeze just waiting to be defrosted and consumed.

I hope you all enjoy your Passover/Easter break. I'll be back again next week.

See you all again soon,

Jillian