Torta de dos naranjas

After looking all over the web for the perfect spanish orange cake (and starting this blog...), I gathered a couple of recipes and came up with my own. I liked that most of them didn't use flour but just ground almonds. The rest of the ingredients were pretty straight forward: eggs, sugar, oranges.

Some recipes used whole oranges cooked into a compote. Others used just the zest of the oranges and then poured an orangy syrup over the cake at the end. Well, I decided to use both hence the name: Torta de dos naranjas!

It is a delicious cake with a coarse texture specked with tiny bits of candied orange pieces giving it an intense but not overwhelming orange flavor. It is also moist from the syrup made of orange and lemon juices. Serve it with a dollop of creamy mascarpone for a true culinary delight that makes you want to come back for more... It was the perfect ending to my spanish inspired dinner last night.

Torta de dos Naranjas

For the cake:

2 oranges, about 280 grs or 10 ounces, scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin) pips discarded

5 eggs, at room temperature, separated

200 grs or 7 ounces sugar

220 grs or 7 ½ ounces ground almond or almond meal

A few whole blanched almonds

For the syrup:

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 oranges, cut into segments

Mascarpone cheese for serving

Make the cake: Place the chopped oranges in a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until the oranges are soft and all the excess liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and lightly greased the sides. Finely chop the oranges.

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add half the sugar, then beat for 1 minute.

Place the egg yolks and the remaining sugar in another bowl and beat for 2 minutes or until pale and very thick. Add the oranges and beat to combine well. Carefully fold in the ground almonds.

Stir in ¼ of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining whites. Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the surface. Arrange the whole almonds on top of the cake.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Check the cake after 25 minutes and cover lightly with aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup: Place the orange juice, sugar, lemon juice and orange segments in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

After removing the cake from the oven, leave it to cool in the pan, then turn it out, peel away the parchment paper and transfer to a serving plate.

(May be made the day before and kept covered at room temperature.)

A few hours before serving, brush half the syrup over the cake and arrange the segments on top. Serve the cake with the remaining syrup and mascarpone cheese.