Without sounding like a total boozehound, my home is well stocked with various spirits and liqueurs collected over the years. Some items were forgotten BYO’s acquired after hosting a succession of New Year’s Eve parties while others were purchased on a whim while travelling overseas (who can say no to duty free booze??). In spite of living in my own private Liquorland, I actually do not own a bottle of tequila which was sadly my undoing with this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop (themed Cocktail Party).
All weekend I planned on making a Tequila Sunrise cake which was going to be a zesty orange and almond cake soaked with a pomegranate and tequila syrup but the crucial ingredient was missing from my liquor cupboard. I quickly dashed over to the local booze barn to see if I could score some cheap tequila but even the cheapest bottle was $32.
I usually don’t baulk at buying a whole bottle of spirit purely for cooking (I happily shelled out for Pernod to use in Luke Mangan’s delectable Licorice Parfait with Lime Syrup) but I actually don’t like tequila so couldn’t bring myself to buy any. And no, there were no mini bottles either. Still, blogging should be a learning experience so while I didn’t end up using it, I read up on tequila anyway and came to the conclusion that maybe I just haven’t had decent tequila in my life :|
So in lieu of the Tequila Sunrise cake, I’ve had to downgrade the cocktail party to a top-shelf mixer night by making the Vodka and Orange Cake. I do like the flavour combo however so I wasn’t too sad about the change of plans. I added a dash of Cointreau to the syrup to keep this cake in cocktail mode. I made this type of orange cake before (using whole oranges) but used gluten free flour along with the almond meal this time in keeping with my diet.
This is a wonderfully moist cake that screams ‘ORANGE’ with each bite. The vodka and Cointreau syrup is only subtle in flavour but made the cake even more moist and just a tiny bit boozy.
The Sweet Adventures Blog Hop is hosted by 84th & 3rd, The Hungry Australian, Dining With a Stud and The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader. This blog hop is open to all food bloggers.
- 2 medium oranges, washed (I used blood oranges)
- 100g butter (I did a 50/50 split of butter and Nuttlex)
- 200g caster sugar (I used the same quantity of alternative sugars + white sugar)
- 3 eggs
- 240g almond meal
- 75g gluten free flour (regular self-rising flour if non gluten free)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Syrup
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ water
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tbsp vodka
- 2 tbsp Cointreau (omit all alcohol if not desired and replace with water)
- Pre-heat oven to 180C (160C if fan forced).
- Place oranges in a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer on low/medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove water and refill. Simmer again for another 15 minutes. This process removes the bitterness from the orange rind.
- Chop oranges once cooled and remove any seeds.
- Place oranges in Thermomix bowl (or food processor) and blitz on Speed 6 for 20 seconds until pureed.
- Add remaining ingredients to TMX bowl and blitz again on Speed 6 for 10 seconds until cake mixture is smooth.
- Pour cake mixture into a 20cm cake pan (line if required) and place into oven for 50 minutes. Knife pushed into cake should come out clean.
- While cake is baking, prepare syrup by placing all syrup ingredients into a saucepan and simmering on medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Pour syrup over cake while still in cake pan and allow to cool.
- Serve once cooled with some whipped cream or on its own. There's enough flavour there :)
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