Orange and Almond Buns

All the Christmas cake and biscuit stock has been consumed at last and I can start baking again.

A quick fruit bowl, store cupboard search revealed oranges and ground almonds....a great combination....an even quicker google search introduced me to a lovely blog beehive95, and a slightly different version of the Nigella clementine cake recipe that I think most of us have made at some time.

Beehive95's recipe uses a slightly higher ground almond to egg ratio, and oranges rather than clementines.

I'd just bought these cup cake or muffin cases....I'm not sure exactly what the difference is...so I was dying to use them. I only had enough ground almonds to make exactly half the amount so I thought it would be perfect to try...and just call them buns to solve the dilemma!

To make beehive95's Orange & Almond cake you will need:

• Two large organic unwaxed oranges
• 300g of ground almonds
• 250g of caster or granulated sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

This is a very easy cake to make but takes quite a while to bake and you need a long time to cook the oranges, so it's the kind of thing to make in the evening when you're pottering about. It's great because almonds are really good for you and it's both fat and wheat free.

To make the cake or buns simply:

• Place the orange/s in a pan, cover with water bring to the boil, reduce the heat and then cook until tender when pierced with a knife. Apparently this can take up to two hours. Mine took a lot less, I suppose this will depend on the size and thickness of the skin.
• Cut in half and leave to cool.

• Remove the pips and blend the orange halves, skin, pith and all.

• Whip up the eggs and sugar using an ordinary hand held balloon whisk.

• Fold in the ground almonds and baking powder. Put into a 25cm loose bottom baking pan lined with parchment and bake at 150c for 45 minutes to one hour.
• Leave to cool in the tin before cutting.

I used exactly half the ingredients which made exactly nine small cakes. They took about half an hour to cook which surprised me. I checked them after the first ten or fifteen minutes but they needed longer.

I forgot to put the baking powder in....I was glad actually because they worked fine without. These are the most deliciously moist little buns....mmm......lovely.....

They are scrumptious just as they are but make a great desert served with custard and with a fruit coulis. I reserved some of the sauce I made whilst poaching pears in a Cinnamon, Cardamon and Rosemary Sauce with a red grape juice base. It working amazingly well and this will be on my repertoire from now on.

This post is linked to The Kitchen Maid's bloghop Sweet Sweet Friday that you can see here.

Do you have an end of week sweet treat? Add it here to spread the sweetness of Fridays....