Michelle Darmody: Delicious scent from this Orange Blossom Cake
An orange blossom water cake: a marmalade-tasting treat from North Africa
A line from the poem , by Somali-British poet, Warsan Shire, highlights the stark reality of the horrifying decisions many mothers have to make when fleeing home: "You have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land."
When running from violence and unrest many people shed all of their belongings on the journey, arriving at a new place with little or nothing. One thing that does cross borders is recipes. The taste of home can be a comfort in dark times. I learned this through a project I worked on called Our Table. Simply providing a space for people who were seeking asylum to cook opened up conversation and encouraged friendships.
We tried to create places where people could cook recipes from their homelands and sit and eat with others.
A beautifully-named project, Bia Friend, continues in a similar vein — inviting people from different communities to take part in cooking lessons. When eating and cooking together, a tacit communication emerges: even if we do not share the same native language we can communicate through food, break bread together. After all, the word 'companion' means 'with bread'.
In Britain, there is a bakery called Proof that provides long-term employment for those from the refugee community. While employing both men and women, it seems to be led by a strong female team creating delicious pastries and bread to be delivered in their area. According to their website they “are passionate about building a business that provides a sense of dignity, purpose and belonging for its bakers”.
The recipes included here are inspired by those of Proof bakery, I am sure their versions have an added extra. These are homage to all the women of immeasurable strength who were forced to take long journeys, finding themselves far from home and using food as a way to create friendship.
The orange blossom water cake comes under many guises — Tunisian orange cake, Moroccan orange cake. By using the whole orange it adds a tartness to the end result, creating a flavour much like marmalade. You can offset this with an extra drizzle of honey over the warm cake if you wish.
- 200mls milk
- 100g soft butter
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 ½ tsp dried yeast
- 60g golden caster sugar
- 150g wholemeal flour
- 250g strong white flour
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 75g butter
- 30g caster sugar
- 30g muscovado sugar
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- 75g pecan nuts, finely chopped
- 75g shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
- 60g icing sugar, sieved
- 1 tbs cream cheese
- 1/2 tbs soft butter
- 20g shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
Gently heat the milk, butter and salt until the butter has melted. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.
Stir the yeast and sugar through the flours. Make a well in the center and add the eggs and milk mixture. Combine the ingredients bringing in the flour from the sides as you do to form a sticky dough.
Oil a clean surface and turn out the dough. Knead it for about eight minutes until a smooth ball is formed. Place it into an oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Allow to sit in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Blitz the ingredients for the nut filling until they are combined, and set aside.
Line an oven-proof dish with parchment and preheat your oven to 200°C.
Tip the dough onto an oiled surface and flatten it into a rectangle about 14 by 10 inches in size. Spread the nut filling on top and then roll the dough to form a sausage shape. Slice the sausage into 12 slices and nuzzle them together into the prepared dish. Set aside in a warm place with a tea towel on top to allow them to rise again.
Bake for about 20 minutes until golden and baked through. Once cool enough to handle place onto a wire rack.
Place the icing sugar into a large bowl and make a well in the centre, add the cream cheese and butter as well as 2 tablespoons of boiling water, and stir until smooth. If it is too sticky to pour, add a little more boiling water until you have the desired consistency. Pour this over the cooled buns and sprinkle with the chopped pistachio nuts.
- 250g dark chocolate, broken into small even size pieces
- 250g soft butter
- 4 eggs
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 150g plain flour
- 80g tahini
Preheat your oven to 180° degrees and line a 9-inch square tin with parchment.
Gently melt the chocolate and butter together, and set aside.
Beat the eggs, sugar, flour, and 20g of the tahini together. Sir in the chocolate mixture until combined.
Scoop into your prepared tin and swirl the remaining tahini on top.
Bake for 25 minutes — the brownies should not be baked through, they should be a bit squishy. Once cool, slice them to your desired size.
- 1 orange
- 250g soft butter
- 180g golden caster sugar
- 50g honey
- 140g natural yogurt
- 100g ground almonds
- 200g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder, sieved
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbs orange blossom water
- 50g honey
- 50mls orange juice
- the zest of 2 oranges
Place the whole orange into a heavy-based saucepan and cover with water. Simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes until soft. Once cool enough to handle, cut it in half and remove any seeds. Blitz the orange to a pulp and set aside.
Preheat oven to 170°C and line a 9-inch round loose-base or spring-form tin with parchment.
Beat the butter, sugar, honey, yogurt, ground almonds, flour, baking powder, and eggs until well combined. Stir in the orange blossom water and the orange pulp. Scoop into your prepared tin.
Bake for an hour and 10 minutes, covering with foil after an hour if it is turning brown on top. Test if it is baked with a skewer.
Mix the honey, orange juice, and zest in a saucepan and heat for a few moments until the honey has melted into the juice. Drizzle this over the warm cake while it is still in the tin. Allow to cool in the tin.
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