A couple of weeks ago, a good friend and I had our birthdays a week apart. My friend gave me a recipe book (always a welcome gift) and chose a cake from it for her birthday afternoon tea. I happened to have a Bundt tin just like the one in the picture in the book. The cake is really good and the cardamon yoghurt cream is a great accompaniment.

The recipe is taken from A Year of Sundays, the latest book by Belinda Jeffery.

Ingredients for cake

380 g unsalted butter, softened

380 g castor sugar

6 x 60 g eggs at room temperature

80 g almond meal

300 g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cardamon

½ tsp salt

Finely grated zest of two oranges

100 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice

50 ml olive oil

Ingredients for syrup

Finely shredded zest of two oranges

250 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice

Finely shredded zest of one lemon

40 ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice

140 g caster sugar

½ cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Seeds from 6 cardamon pods

Ingredients for cardamon yoghurt cream

200 ml thickened cream

100 ml Greek-style yoghurt

1 tbls brown sugar

¾ tsp vanilla extract

½ – 1 tsp ground cardamon

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (less for a fan forced oven). Brush a 25 cm Bundt tin with melted butter and dust with flour (see tips).
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, ground cardamon, salt and almond meal in a large bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk for 1 minute. set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar together on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, until mixture is light and creamy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the orange zest with the last egg.
5. Combine the orange juice and the olive oil in a jug. Fold one third of the flour mixture into the egg mixture and then fold in a third of the juice mixture. Repeat the flour /juice additions until all have been combined
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour until the centre springs back when lightly pressed.
7. Leave the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.
8. While the cake is cooling, make the syrup.
9. Put all syrup ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and let bubble for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to let flavours infuse.. When you like the taste, strain the syrup into a bowl or jug.
10. Once the cake has cooled, carefully pierce the cake all over with a fine metal skewer many times. Brush the syrup all over the cake and repeat after each lot has been absorbed until the syrup has been completely used. leave the cake for 1-2 hours before serving.
11. Transfer the cake to a serving plate, dust with icing sugar (at the last minute as it will absorb into the moist cake quite quickly). Decorate with shreds of zest if you like and serve with the cardamon yoghurt cream.

Tips

When preparing the Bundt tin, brush melted butter in the all the ridges of the tin and put the tin in the fridge for 10 minutes. Check the tin for any uncovered areas and re-butter and cool again. Then dust the tin with flour. If the day/room is warm, put the tin in the fridge until ready to fill with the cake batter.