Don’t chuck your orange peel – save it to make a zero-waste cake

Tom Hunt’s orange peel polenta cake. Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian

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.