Orange Cake

"There's a special kind of freedom sisters enjoy.
Freedom to share innermost thoughts, to ask a favour,
to show their true feelings. The freedom to simply be themselves."
Author Unknown

I have a sister who means the world to me, while we no longer share a continent and I have not seen her in 8 years, I still feel the bond we shared when we would lie in bed together and she would tell me ghost stories.

My sister is 7 years older than me and she still thinks of me as her baby sister. She has never been ashamed to take me anywhere with her, which is a credit to her and not my maturity. When I was only 13 (and she was already 21), she would take me out with her friends, and dared anyone to complain about the kid. She loved me and gave me tips on boys, make-up and everything else that mothers just aren't qualified to do.

Still today, she'll send me little gifts and messages that make me smile and know how special I really am. Even something as simple as a magazine, which is were I got the recipe for this lovely orange cake. I only wish we could have sat together and had a "cuppa" with a slice of cake and talked like we used to in the old days.

This recipe is dedicated to the world's best sister Janice - or Janna as only I call her - from me your Lamb Chops!

She lives in Australia and sent me the Australian Women's Weekly. This recipe is from there.

Orange Cake

1 medium (240g) whole orange
200g butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten lightly
10ml Orange blossom Water (my optional extra)
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1½ cups (225g) self-raising flour
10ml Baking Powder (my optional extra)

CITRUS ICING
1 medium (140g) lemon
1 small (180g) orange
1 cup (160g) icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon boiling water, approximately

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Grease a deep 20cm cake pan, line base with baking paper.

Wash and dry orange; cut into quarters and remove seeds.
Process in a food processor until pulpy.

Transfer orange to a mixing bowl, stir in butter, eggs, sugar, orange blossom water and beat until light and sugar is dissolved - this is easily done with a machine.
Add the sifted flour and baking powder and blend with a metal spoon until smooth.
Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes or until cooked when tested.
Stand for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

CITRUS ICING:

Using a zester or grater, remove zest from lemon and orange
Squeeze juice from fruit - you will need 2 teaspoons orange juice and 2 teaspoons lemon juice.
Sift icing sugar into a bowl
Stir in juices make smooth paste.
Stir in rind.
Cover cake in the icing and serve.

This cake is even better the next day, once the flavours have had more time to develop.