Category: Sweet treats

Beat the January blues with my Seville Orange & Artisan Honey Upside Down cake

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My latest recipe for Neptune Weybridge to beat the January blues and put a smile on your face: Seville Orange & Artisan Honey Upside Down cake.

This delicious cake celebrates the Seville orange, which is in season right now, with their beautiful perfume and sweet citrus aroma. A great little pick me up, which is so very important at the moment. Take the time to bake this gem of a cake, get the whole household to join in, and enjoy as a well-deserved mid-week treat.
Perfect with a cup of Earl Grey or enjoy with a little drizzle of double cream or a traditional rich egg custard. 

  1. To begin pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6, for this cake you want to use a small 7 inch cake tin, ensure that the tin is perfectly buttered with a piece of baking parchment cut into a circle to be placed on the bottom for your orange slices. 
  2. Next choose two large juicy Seville oranges one for the juice and the other for slices. Using a sharp knife slice length ways into thin slices. With the orange cut into slices place into a small saucepan. Cover with the juice of the other Seville orange along with 2 tablespoons of golden caster sugar, place over a high heat, you want to poach the oranges in the sugar syrup until soft. 
  3. Once at this point, being careful remove your oranges from the sugar syrup and arrange them in the bottom of the cake tin. You want to place one in the middle then have 4 slices overlapping to form your pattern as this will be the top of the cake. 

Victoria Sponge batter:

• 6 oz of room temperature softened butter 
• 6 oz of golden caster sugar 
• 3 large free-range eggs 
• 6 oz of self-raising flour 
• The zest of one large orange

1. To begin cream together your softened butter and caster sugar till soft and fluffy.
2. Next add one at a time, one large free range egg ensure that the eggs are properly worked into the mixture before adding the next.
3. To stop your mixture from splitting, add a tablespoon of your flour in a figure of eight incorporate this into the batter.
4. Then add the rest of your flour, fold this into the mixture as you don’t want to knock out any air from your sponge. 
5. Spoon your cake batter on top of the orange slices and gently tap the cake mould to ensure that there isn’t any cake batter loose or air bubbles have formed. 
6. Place into your preheated oven and bake for 1 hr – 1:30 minutes, if the cake begins to colour on top then cover with a piece of tin foil. You want your sponge to be light and golden, to test whether your cake is ready using a cake sewer or knife place this into the centre of the cake and this should come out clean. 
7. Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire wrack in the cake tin, once cake is cool remove the tin and flip over onto you chosen Neptune plate. At this point drizzle over a little honey mead, this gives the cake a beautiful moist but sweet tone which complements the oranges perfectly, to reveal the beautiful Saville orange pattern. 

This cake is perfect with a cup of Earl Grey or enjoy with a little drizzle of double cream or a traditional rich egg custard.

The recipe is also on @neptuneweybridge Stories and Food & Drink Highlights.