Delicious on its own with the tangy orange syrup, or elevated with mascarpone and a drizzle of extra oil for a zingy dessert. Rubbing the zest into the sugar helps to release all the lovely fragrant essential oils, which really boosts the flavour.
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Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
45 mins
Cook Time:
55 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 40 mins
Cal/Serv:
346
Ingredients
175ml
olive oil, plus extra to grease
6
cardamom pods
175g
caster sugar
Finely grated zest 2 large oranges, plus juice of 1, keep separate
3
medium eggs
175g
natural yogurt
275g
self-raising flour
FOR THE SYRUP
50g
caster sugar
3
cardamom pods, bruised
Pared zest 1/2 orange
Directions
Step 1 Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan) mark 3 and lightly grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment.
Step 2Using a pestle and mortar, bash the cardamom pods to break the husks. Pick out the black seeds (discard husks) and coarsely grind. Set aside.
Step 3Tip sugar into a large bowl, add orange zest and rub together with your fingertips until combined and the sugar turns orange. Add oil and eggs, then beat using a handheld electric whisk for about 3min, until paler and voluminous. Add yogurt and beat to combine. Fold in flour and ground cardamom using a spatula.
Step 4Scrape into prepared tin and gently smooth. Bake for 55min-1hr, or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Step 5When the cake is nearly ready, make the syrup. Stir sugar, orange juice, cardamom pods and pared zest in a small pan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bubble for 2min until syrupy. Remove from heat and discard the cardamom pods.
Step 6Remove cake from the oven and, while still warm, brush or spoon over syrup. It may seem like a lot, but it will absorb. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
TO STORE Once cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
To serve as a dessert, sweeten 300g mascarpone with 25g icing sugar. Slice cake and dollop a spoonful on each slice, making an indent in mascarpone with back of a spoon. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil so it pools in mascarpone and sprinkle with grated orange zest.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
Alice Shields is Senior Cookery Writer for Good Housekeeping. A trained pastry chef, you’ll find her food styling on photo shoots, developing delicious recipes and writing about all things food. She loves to bake and her favourite pudding will always be a chocolate fondant. Originally hailing from Lancashire, she finally achieved her goal of getting a butter pie recipe into the magazine.
