With Christmas only around the corner, it’s time to get all your ingredients for the big day.
Mary Berry decorated her whole orange spice cake with paper star stencils, but you could dust icing sugar over any Christmas stencil you like.
You can get creative with Christmas tree stencils, snowflakes, or even a reindeer.
“If liked, you can ice the cake as well as fill it,” said the iconic Mary Berry.
“Use just under half the orange filling to sandwich the cakes together, and spread the rest on top.”
Recipe
Serves: eight
Ingredients:
- For the cake
- One small thin-skinned orange
- 275g self-raising flour
- Three level teaspoons baking powder
- 275g caster sugar
- 225g butter, softened
- Four eggs
- One tsp ground cinnamon
- One tsp mixed spice
- For the orange filling
- 50g butter, softened
- 175g icing sugar, sifted, plus a little extra for dusting
- Two level tbsp orange pulp,reserved from the cake
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Grease and base-line two deep 20cm tins with greased greaseproof paper.
2. Place the whole orange in a small saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. When the orange is soft and cold, cut in half and remove any pips. Process the whole orange, including the skin, until medium chunky.
4. Reserve two level tablespoons of the orange pulp for the icing, and put the rest back in the processor. Add the remaining cake ingredients and blend until smooth. Avoid overmixing. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
6. Leave to cool in the tins for a few moments, then turn out, peel off the paper and finish cooling on a wire rack.
To make the orange filling
1. Cream the soft butter, then add the sifted icing sugar and reserved orange pulp.
2. Sandwich the cakes together with the icing, and sift icing sugar over the top of the cake.
This is where you can choose any stencil you like to make the orange spiced cake as Christmassy as you would like.
While this cake is best eaten fresh, it will keep well in an air-tight container for three days.
