Thursday, December 06, 2007

Mini Flourless Orange & Cardamom Cakes


I’m back! As you can imagine the last couple of weeks have been crazy, what with Christmas parties & getting ready to move & I’ve barely started the packing or shopping for that matter. Today I had a couple of the girls over for what is probably my last bit of entertaining in this house before the move in 2 weeks time. It will be sad to leave this home of the last 4 years which has been perfect but it is a new adventure we will be embarking on which is very exciting too. Lunch was grazing food, about all that Chloe lets me get up to these days & everyone else was bringing along children & a plate too. We had marinated olives, a lovely spicy red capsicum & chickpea dip on crostini, ham, prosciutto, marinated octopus, cheeses, breads, dolmades & a beautiful salad. To finish off a fresh summer fruit platter & these gorgeous mini cakes which were a cinch to make. To save time I cooked the oranges last night & today it was just a matter of throwing everything into the food processor, baking & icing, yum. Note – the icing is very generous, I could easily have used half this quantity & still had a good coating on each cake. The recipe was in Delicious, a few issues back.

Mini Flourless Orange & Cardamom Cakes

Makes 18

2 oranges
250g caster sugar
6 eggs
2 cups (250g) almond meal
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn ground cardamom
1 cup flaked almonds, toasted

Icing
500g icing sugar, sifted
125g cream cheese
Juice of 2 lemons
25g unsalted butter, softened

Place the oranges in a saucepan, cover with cold water & bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low & simmer for 1 hour or until soft. Using a slotted spoon, remove oranges & cool. Discard the liquid.

Preheat oven to 170c fan forced. Line the 18 holes (1/3 cup) of muffins pans with paper cases. Quarter the oranges, then remove any core & seeds. Place in a food processor & process until smooth. Add the sugar & process to combine. Add the eggs & process to combine. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the almond meal, baking powder & cardamom. Divide the mixture evenly between the patty cases & bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove & cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, for the icing, process all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Spread the top of each cake with some icing & sprinkle with the nuts.