Citrus & almond cake – Christophe Michalak

01/02/20224passionfood

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 8 - 10 people - 2 loaf pan cake 24cm*4cm / 4cm

I have always been a big lover of cakes. And that probably explains why I have a lot of cake recipes in my blog. But seriously, what’s better than a slice or two of a delicious cake waiting to be enjoyed with your morning coffee or afternoon tea.

This recipe is from one of my favourite French pastry chef “Christophe Michalak “. I already shared with you some of his recipes : “ chocolate cake “ and “Gianduja – orange blossom cake”.

This citrus – almond cake is definitely one of the easiest cakes I have made and also one of the most delicious. A part the orange marmalade, you’ll need ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard and fridge. Such as flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, neutral oil and ground almonds.

Some memories :

It’s crazy how some things steeped in memories such as an orange marmalade. When I was kid the summer vacation in Morocco were three months from June until September. So my dad who was teacher at that time, took my brother and I every year to spend the month of June in Marrakech. I remember that year, every family we visited, served us the orange marmalade whether with bread, crêpes or to decorate a pound cake. It was the trend that year. I started to appreciate it in spite of myself, well I have to say I really didn’t have the choice. Back to Casablanca it was the same story, we called that year the orange marmalade year. And now every time I do my grocery I always take a jar of it.

Speaking of marmalade my kinds including my husband and myself, love Paddington and when we watched the sequel, I came to know how much Paddington likes marmalade. I bet he would have been in heaven that year with me during my trip in Marrakech. And by the way I highly recommend you to watch it. It’s a very good family movie.

Cakes are a welcome treat in almost any situation : birthday party, afternoon tea or brunches. But sometimes you don’t want a sophisticated cake for these occasions. A cake like this citrus – almond loaf cake, very moist, delicious, quick and very easy to make is everything you need to impress your guests.

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Citrus & almond cake - Christophe Michalak

01/02/2022 4passionfood

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes

Serves: 8 - 10 people - 2 loaf pan cake 24cm*4cm / 4cm

Ingredients : for 2 small loaf pan cake 24cm * 4cm / 4cm

For the batter :

95 g unsalted butter , at room temperature
85 g icing sugar
40 g egg yolks, ( 2 eggs medium size )
25 g egg, ( 1/2 whole egg)
15 g grape seeds oil, or any neutral oil
15 g full fat milk
20 g orange marmalade
55 g all purpose flour
120 g almond powder
1 g baking powder
60 g egg whites , ( 2 eggs medium size )
25 g caster sugar

For the syrup : ( check Tricks & Tips for a version without alcohol ) half will be enough

200 g mineral water
50 g caster sugar
20 g Grand Marnier
20 g lime juice

Decorate the cake

some icing sugar
1 Tbsp pine nuts , ( roasted) if not use flaked roasted almond. Or just keep it as it is.

Method :

1)
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan .
2)
Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment whisk on a medium speed. Add the sugar 1 tbsp at the time, keep whisking until the meringue is fully whipped and the egg whites form soft peaks. Set aside until needed.
3)
In a mixing bowl, mix together the softened butter and icing sugar until a creamy texture is obtained. Then add the egg yolks, whole egg, mix again until the eggs are completely combined before adding the milk, the oil, and the orange marmalade.

Once all these ingredients are perfectly combined, add the almond powder, flour and the baking powder, few spoons at the time. Once the dry ingredients combined, gently fold the meringue into the batter.
4)
Grease your cake loaf pan then pour in the batter, and bake for 25 minutes or more depending on your oven and the size of the mold that you used (the time giving here is for the mold 24cm * 4cm / 4cm).

The cake will be cooked once an inserted knife at the top in the center of the cake comes out clean.
5)
Meanwhile the cake is baking make the syrup.

Here the chef use “Grand Marnier” to flavor the cake, I didn’t because I don’t consume alcohol so for a free alcohol version check Tricks & Tips.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the water and the sugar, bring to a boil and once the sugar has dissolved remove from the heat add the Grand Marnier and lime juice.

I used just the half of it.
6)
While the cake still warm, soak it with the syrup. Let it cool before decorating it with some pine nuts as suggested by the chef, or use some roasted flaked almond.
Enjoy !!

Here using a small cake loaf pan and decorated it with icing sugar and roasted pine nuts

Tricks & Tips :

* Because I don’t consume alcohol, I decided instead of le Grand Marnier which has an orange flavour to use orange juice .

So here is my version :

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 100g of mineral water, 100g of orange juice and 25g of caster sugar, bring to a boil and once the sugar has dissolved remove from the heat and add 20g of lime juice. If you have an organic oranges grate the zest to have more flavour in your syrup, but you need to sieve it before using it.

I cooked the syrup for little bit longer 5 minutes after the sugar was dissolved, I had a syrupy texture (not too liquide ).

* This recipe is for 2 loaf pan cake ( 24cm * 4cm / 4cm), if you want to use like my mold picture the intro(20cm * 10cm / 7,5cm ) you need to add the half of the ingredients giving. ( for exemple 55g of flour will be 82,5g). For the syrup just keep the same quantities ( you can use all of it, I used half of the syrup ). For the baking time it will be definitely longer, count between 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven. Just keep an eye on it after 45 minutes of baking.

Nutrition