Almond Orange Halva Cake

Yeah, totally not twenty-one anymore. Still, a birthday is a birthday.

With that, the recipe for the second cake I brought in today! This one was very popular, even more so than the Sacher Torte. I've had this one for my birthday every year, since the age of, uh, three maybe?

Almond Orange Halva Cake

125 g butter
2 1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup semolina
1 cup ground almonds
3 tbs orange juice

Syrup
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp brandy

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a deep, round 20 cm pan.

Cream butter, rind and sugar with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well-combined.

Mix together the baking powder, semolina and almonds. Stir in half of the dry mixture into the butter mixture with 1 1/2 tsp of the orange juice, then stir in the rest of the dry mixture and the orange juice.

Pour cake mix into the pan and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out cake, upside-down, onto a wire-rack, over a tray. Brush the top and sides with half of the hot syrup. Return the cake to the oven on the wire rack and bake for a further 5 minutes. Overturn the cake again and return it to the original cake pan. Brush the top with the remaining syrup. Cover and stand for 12 hours before serving.

Syrup

Combine orange juice and sugar in saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Stir in brandy.


Additional notes

Some people like this cake slightly burnt. If you want to cater to them, bake at 200°C.

Almond meal can also be used for this recipe; the cake will have a finer texture. If almonds are too expensive, other nuts can also be substituted. My mother likes to use cashews.

Choose your oranges and orange juice carefully! For oranges, they must have a bright colour and have a slight citronella scent, so that the rind will be good. I used fresh pulpy orange juice with no added sugar, but the best orange juice is the kind you squeeze yourself from a fresh orange.

Cherry brandy flavouring is a good non-alcoholic substitute for brandy in this recipe.

For a lemon version, double the amount of sugar for the cake and prepare the syrup using 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice and 1/2 cup pineapple juice.