Fennel & orange cake

Name: Fennel & orange cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 350 g fennel, coarsely grated; 350 g caster sugar; 250 g spelt four; 1 tsp baking powder; 200 ml rapeseed oil; 4 large eggs; 60 g mixed peel; 75 g walnuts, roughly chopped, plus extra, fnely chopped, to decorate; 1 tsp ground ginger; 3 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed; 3 small oranges (scrubbed), zest and 2 tbsp juice; 340 g soft cheese; 175 g icing sugar, sifted

Fennel is surprisingly delicious paired with citrus in cakes, and creates a result very similar to the perennially popular carrot cake.

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Serves12
CourseCake
Prepare30 mins
Cook1 hr 30 mins
Total time2 hrs

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Ingredients

350g fennel, coarsely grated
350g caster sugar
250g spelt four
1 tsp baking powder
200ml rapeseed oil
4 large eggs
60g mixed peel
75g walnuts, roughly chopped, plus extra, fnely chopped, to decorate
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
3 small oranges (scrubbed), zest and 2 tbsp juice
340g soft cheese
175g icing sugar, sifted

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. Put the fennel into the bowl of a freestanding mixer (or in a bowl to use with electric beaters). Add the caster sugar, flour, baking powder, oil, eggs, mixed peel, walnuts, ginger and 1/3 of the fennel seeds and orange zest. Beat together on a low speed until combined, then mix on a medium speed for a further 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes-1 hour 30 minutes, loosely covering with foil if browning too fast, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cool, use a serrated knife to halve the cake horizontally. To make the icing, whisk together the soft cheese, icing sugar, orange juice and the remaining orange zest and fennel seeds in a freestanding mixer (or in a bowl with electric beaters) until smooth (about 1 minute). Sandwich the two halves together with 1/2 the icing, then top with the remaining icing and decorate with the finely chopped walnuts.

Cook’s tip

Use essential plain flour (or whatever plain flour you have in your cupboard) instead of spelt flour. You can also swap the walnuts for any nuts you have to hand.