Italian lemon and orange cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 100 g almond(s), whole
• 180 g sugar
• 50 g breadcrumbs
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon (to taste)
• 1 lemon(s), untreated
• 1 orange(s), untreated
• 4 m.-sized eggs
• 200 ml mild olive oil (or sunflower oil instead)
• 50 g sugar for the syrup

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 35 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 35 minutes

New Year’s cake, Moroccan cake by Fabien

Grate the almonds freshly. Don’t buy grated almonds; you’ll taste the difference. Mix the grated almonds with the sugar, breadcrumbs, baking powder, and cinnamon. Wash the lemon and orange in hot water, dry thoroughly, and grate the zest. Grate only thinly; the white inner skin is bitter. Do not use ready-made flavorings (powder or liquid), as the consistency and taste would be different. Immediately stir the zest into the almond mixture to prevent the flavor from evaporating. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Crack the eggs and gradually stir in the oil. Beat with a mixer on high until the mixture is evenly fluffy and fluffy. This may take several minutes. Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the egg custard, but do not overmix. Immediately pour the batter into 12 greased mini Bundt cake pans and bake on the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes. Do the toothpick test! A regular springform pan can also be used, but this will require longer baking time. Remove the cakes from the oven, let them cool for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pan and let them cool completely. For the syrup, squeeze the (now peeled) lemon and orange and bring the juice to a boil in a saucepan with 50g of sugar, stirring occasionally. Simmer over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until a syrupy consistency is reached, stirring occasionally. Allow the syrup to cool completely, but do not allow it to set completely. Drizzle the syrup over the cold cakes. Decorate with chopped or flaked almonds, if desired. Refrigerate for 24 hours and serve chilled. The cakes will be quite soft and moist, and of course, sticky due to the syrup. If you don’t like this, you can extend the baking time a bit and/or omit the syrup—or find a different recipe. This recipe isn’t suitable for cakes in a jar, or only without syrup (which would be a shame), because the syrup—when poured onto the cake in a jar—makes the top layer soggy but doesn’t penetrate the cake. I imagine it would be similarly problematic if I used a springform pan. With mini Bundt cakes, the syrup spreads over the larger outer surface, excess syrup runs off, and the cakes become sticky but not soggy. According to the original Italian recipe, the cake is eaten there on New Year’s Day.