Orange and Thyme caramelised upside-down cake
Allow yourself time in advance to cook the oranges. They can be cooked the day before if necessary.
Caramelised topping:
- 3 small oranges
- 1 tsp finely chopped orange thyme leaves
- 170g caster sugar
Cake ingredients:
- 3 oranges
- 160g plain flour
- 150g ground almonds
- 280g golden caster sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp finely chopped orange thyme leaves
- pinch of salt
- 5 large eggs
Method:
- First of all, or the day before, put the oranges for the cake into a pan and just cover with cold water. Simmer these for 2 hours then remove and allow to cool.
- Butter a solid bottomed cake tin generously (20 – 24 cm in diameter). Preheat your oven to 170ºC, 150ºC fan or Gas Mark 3.5
- For the upside down topping, slice two of the oranges as thinly as possible, complete with peel. Arrange these in concentric overlapping circles in the bottom of the tin. Juice the third orange.
- To make the caramel, gently heat the sugar in a small frying pan until it melts. As soon as it starts to darken remove from the heat and carefully stir in the juice from the third orange. Reheat to amalgamate the juice with the caramel and pour over the orange slices in the prepared tin.
- Mix the 7 dry cake ingredients in a large bowl.
- Chop up the boiled oranges a little and remove any pips. Turn them, complete with their peel, into a pulp in a food processor. Add this pulp, along with the 5 beaten eggs, to the dry cake ingredients and stir well to mix.
- Pour the cake mix over the caramel and oranges in the tin and bake for 1 hour.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for ½ hour before turning out onto a serving plate.
This is lovely served in thin slices with coffee, or as a dessert with some whipped cream flavoured with orange liqueur.