Spoil your friends and whānau this weekend with this unbelievably good mid-winter cake, by award-winning cookbook author, food photographer and stylist Christall Lowe (Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui).
KŪMARA CAKE WITH ORANGE TOFFEE SAUCE
What better way to celebrate the Matariki harvest than by enjoying one of the most significant crops for Māori, the kūmara. Here I have combined it with oranges to make a moist, luscious cake, served with toffee sauce and ice cream. I use orange kūmara in this recipe for their softness and sweetness. As a one-bowl, easy-mix cake, you’ll be whipping this up often!
SERVES 12
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp mixed spice
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup white sugar
2 cups peeled, grated orange kūmara (approx. 2 medium)
4 eggs
1 cup canola or rice bran oil
2 medium oranges (seedless), peeled and blended to a purée (leave the skin on ½ an orange for a more zesty flavour)
FOR THE ORANGE TOFFEE SAUCE
1 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup cream
METHOD
Heat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a medium rectangular cake tin (approx. 23 x 33cm).
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, including kūmara, aerating with your hands.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix with an electric beater on low for 1 minute.
Pour batter into prepared cake tin, and bake for 45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
While the cake cooks, make the orange toffee sauce. Place sugar and orange juice in a medium saucepan and stir to combine. Cook mixture over a medium heat, without stirring, swirling the pan every now and then, until a light caramel colour, about 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and carefully add cream (take care here as the mixture will bubble vigorously), then return to low heat and stir until smooth.
When the cake is cooked, leave to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing and serving warm, smothered in orange toffee sauce and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Read more about Cristall Lowe's Matariki plans and menu.
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