Ciambella Orange Citrus Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 8
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2 cups/300g/10.6ozs cake flour*
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15g/0.5oz baking powder
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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2 eggs, room temperature
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3/4 cup/165/5.8ozs. caster or superfine sugar
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3/4 cup/185ml/6.3flozs. extra virgin olive oil (mild)
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1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs orange juice
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1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
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Zest of 3 oranges and 1 lemon
For icing
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160g/5.4ozs. icing or powdered sugar
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2-3 tablespoons orange juice
*To make 1 cup of cake flour, take 1 cup of plain flour. Replace 2 tablespoons of plain flour with cornflour or fine cornstarch and whisk well until combined.
Step 1 - Grease your bundt tin - I use a tablespoon/20g/0.7oz of melted butter mixed with 1 tablespoon/8g/0.3oz of flour to form a brushable slurry that I make sure to brush into all the nooks of the bundt tin. Preheat oven to 170C/338F.
Step 2 -Sift the cake flour and baking powder with salt in a large bowl and set aside. Place the eggs in a mixer bowl with a whisk attachment and whisk for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and whisk for 3 minutes. Then add the oil, orange juice, vanilla and zest and whisk again for 1 minute.
Step 3 -Make a well in the bowl of flour and gradually mix the liquid mixture into the dry. I do this in about 6-8 lots making sure that the batter isn't overworked and that there aren't any lumps. If there are lumps, pass this batter through a sieve (you may lose some of the zest so add a bit more zest) and then rest the batter for 5 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared bundt tin and bake for 35 minutes until the centre of the cake ring bounces back when gently touched. Allow to cool in the tin and then carefully upturn into a serving plate (this is a very soft cake so I prefer leaving it in the tin until completely cool but if you live life on the edge you do you x).
Step 4 -To make the icing, place the icing sugar in a food processor and blitz until fine (see, I hate sieving). Drip in the orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time. You want it thick enough to drip down the side slowly. Use a teaspoon to drip the icing down the side of the cake.