This orange and Campari cake comes from one of my all-time favourite cookbooks ‘Polpo’ by Russell Norman. Not only is it the most exquisitely designed and made book – and by this I meant the instantly recognizable exposed binding, I want to eat every single recipe between the covers. It’s a book that celebrates Venice and all its flavours, Campari being one of them. I’ve also eaten at Polpo in London and had the most delicious meal that will stay with me forever. It’s also where I bought my copy of the book.
The recipe uses Blood oranges but we rarely find those here, so I opted for the ripest and best oranges I know, namely the ones hanging on my tree. They are seedless navel oranges so are perfect for all cooking or baking applications. They tend to change from year to year and sometimes their flesh is drier and denser. Weirdly this year, despite the drought, my oranges have been particularly soft and succulent, and I have a lot that need eating. This recipe uses eight of them so yay!
Campari originates in Milan but is a key ingredient of the famous Venetian Spritz. It’s also the boozy component in the iconic Negroni. Personally, I’m not a fan as I find it way too bitter for my taste but tempered with a good dose of orange and sugar it kind of evens out.
This cake is delicious. It’s dense but very moist from all the syrup that gets soaked in. The texture is slightly grainy as it’s made with semolina flour and feels ironically Italian. The orange flavour is perfect and robust and this cake goes down as a winner for me.
Recipe-wise, the only thing I changed was a swapped 300gms of the caster sugar for regular granulated sugar. I totally love caster in cakes as it has a big effect on the texture, but when you are boiling it with liquid it’s unnecessary to use so I also opt for regular. I’ve also changed my cooking time. The original recipe indicates a 20-minute bake, which I can only think is a typo. No single-layer cake of this magnitude would ever take 20 minutes to bake. I baked mine for 40 minutes and it was still a smidge raw in the very middle. I would opt for 45 minutes next time. I used large eggs whereas the recipe calls for medium eggs so either or I would say.
The syrup takes quite a long time to thicken, so do this while the cake is baking. You are looking at around 25 – 30 mins here over low heat. You essentially want to reduce the liquid by roughly half. It thickens up more as it cools. Not all the syrup goes into the cake, so I reserved what was leftover in a jug to over when I served.
The book mentions that this cake is excellent served with vanilla ice cream, and I’m sure it would be as it’s the kind of cake to serve as a dessert vs. at tea. I think cream would be wonderful too, but I also think it’s perfect straight up as it is in all its syrupy-soaked goodness.
I just started shooting the process as I went along in the kitchen so the shots aren’t really styled. It was a rainy day and the light was quite moody, so I quite enjoyed capturing these images in a different way.
Recipe ~ from Polpo by Russell Norman, Bloomsbury
orange & campari cake
A syrup-soaked dense orange & Campari cake recipe.
Print Recipe
Prep Time:15 minutes mins
Cook Time:45 minutes mins
Ingredients
- 8 seedless oranges blood or otherwise
- 350 g Greek Yoghurt
- 300 gms caster sugar
- 4 large free-range eggs
- 250 gm butter melted and then cooled
- 350 g semolina flour
- 100 g almond flour/ground almonds
- 100 ml Campari
- 300 g granulated white sugar
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 170C and grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
Finely grate the zest of four of the oranges.
In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the yoghurt, the zest, and the caster sugar and beat until well combined. Pour over the cooled melted butter and mix to incorporate.
Add the semolina and almond flour and fold through until it’s well mixed. Scrape into your prepared cake tin and flatten out the top with a spatula. Bake for 45 minutes and until golden brown. You will know your cake is done when I sharp knife comes out clean.
While the cake is baking juice the 8 oranges and strain this through a fine sieve. Add the juice along with Campari and 300gms of granulated sugar to a medium bot and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for about 20 – 30 minutes until it becomes syrupy. It would have halved in volume.
When the cake comes out of the oven, prick it all over with a toothpick or skewer and pour over the syrup in batches until most of it is absorbed.
Author: Sam Linsell
A few more recipes with oranges:
Oven-roasted sweet potato fries with orange salt
Orange cake with orange buttercream frosting
Baked yoghurt with spicy brandy oranges
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