I’ve long been a fan of whole orange cake, and have shared various recipes for it in my cookbooks and articles over the years. Recently, however, I tried making it with just the orange peel instead of the whole fruit – and what a revelation! Why use the entire orange when you can just make use of a byproduct instead? After all, it’s the bitter rind that gives this cake its wonderful depth of flavour, so it makes total sense.
This cake is a true showstopper, especially when adorned with pomegranate seeds and pistachios, which give it a beautiful, festive colour. Claudia Roden’s classic recipe for orange polenta cake uses the whole fruit, but this version using just the peel tastes as delightful, and allows you to enjoy the orange’s flesh and juice separately.
I didn’t have any saved orange peel to hand when I made this, so I juiced three oranges to make fresh orange juice before baking. The recipe is perfect for any orange fans, and especially for a cafe that makes fresh juice and often has plenty of orange rind spare. This waste-saving cake is a dessert I’ll be keeping in my recipe Rolodex for years to come.
Orange peel polenta cake
Serves 12
The peel from 3 large unwaxed organic oranges, or the spent shells of 3 juiced oranges
250ml olive oil
250g maple syrup
5 medium eggs
300g ground almonds
220g polenta
2 tsp baking powder
100g unrefined sugar, or 100g extra maple syrup
To serve (all optional)
Chopped pistachios
Pomegranate seeds
Plain yoghurt, or creme fraiche or double cream
Put the orange peel in a pressure cooker or a saucepan for which you have a lid. Add 500ml water, cover, and cook until the peel is tender – if using a pressure cooker, cook for 15 minutes, according to the manufacturer’s instructions; if using a regular saucepan, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the orange rind is soft, adding more boiling water if necessary.
Transfer the tender peel to a blender and add 75ml of the cooking liquid, the olive oil, maple syrup and whole eggs. Blitz until smooth, then add the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder and unrefined sugar (or 100g more maple syrup), and blend again until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased 20cm cake tin and bake in a 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 oven for about 60 minutes, until the cake reaches a core temperature of 94C, or when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove and leave to cool, then slice and serve as it is, or top with pomegranate seeds and/or pistachios, if using. This is a very moist cake that can happily be eaten with no further accompaniment, but I like it with a big dollop of yoghurt, creme or fraiche or double cream.
• This article was edited on 30 November 2024 to clarify that the oranges used in this cake should be unwaxed and ideally organic.
