1 cup unsalted butter (225grams)
1 cup caster sugar
6 eggs, separated (place the egg yolks in a small bowl, and the egg whites in a large bowl as you will be whisking the egg whites)
1 & 1/2 cups almond flour (finely ground almonds)
3/4 cups & 2 tablespoons finely ground semolina
zest of 3 oranges
juice of 2 & 1/2 oranges and 1 mandarin (juice of 3 oranges if you don’t have a mandarin is OK too)
2/3 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
zest of 2 large lemons
juice of 1 & 1/2 large lemons
Recipe
1. Grease and line the the bottom of a round, spring-form 9 to 9 & 1/2 inch pan. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
2. Beat the butter and caster sugar together in a mixer on medium-high speed. Add the egg yolks in, one at a time, ensuring the each yolk is mixed in well before adding the next egg yolk.
3. Add the almond flour, semolina, zest and orange/mandarin juice into the mixture, mixing well together. When adding the orange/mandarin juice, add the juice last, and add it in until the mixture becomes soft, but not really pour-able. See the picture in my saved Instagram story. You should end up using all if not nearly all of the orange/mandarin juice, but there may be a tiny bit left behind. (You will be adding in the egg whites which is why the batter will loosen up a bit more and why you need to ensure that the batter isn’t too runny at this stage.)
4. In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into the mixture. Transfer the mixing bowl batter into a large bowl and then mix the egg whites into that. When you fold egg whites into the batter, you add one large scoop first and quickly fold it in to loosen the batter and make it a bit less thick. Then continue adding large scoops of egg whites into the batter, using a spatula to cut them in this time rather than quickly folding them in (google how to do this, or check out my saved Instagram story on this cake).
5. Turn the batter into your pan, and bake in a preheated oven for 50 minutes to an hour, until golden brown and firm to the touch. (I took mine out at 50 minutes, but had to cover the top with tinfoil at the 40 minute mark so that the top wouldn’t burn.)
6. Once the cake has been in the oven for about 30 minutes, put the granulated sugar, cinnamon stick and water into a saucepan and heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 4 minutes, the mixture will reduce. Remove the liquid from the heat and add in the lemon rind and lemon juice and stir.
7. When the cake is cooked, let it stand in the pan for 5 minutes then carefully remove the cake from the pan and place the cake a wire cooling rack over top of something that will need to catch the syrup. Prick the top of the cake many times with a fine wooden skewer. Remove the cinnamon stick from the warm lemon syrup (if you need to reheat the lemon syrup, do so gently and until it is just warm as you don’t want it to be bitter). Spoon the hot syrup and lemon rind over the warm cake, let it cool and enjoy!