Chocolate Orange Cake

Method

Put the whole orange or oranges in a pan with cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours or until soft. Drain. When cool, cut oranges in half and remove big pips then pulp everything – pith, peel and all – in a food processor.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C /375F and line a 20cm springform tin.

Add the eggs, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa to the orange in the food processor and mix until you have a cohesive cake mixture, slightly knobbly with the flecks of puréed orange.

Put into the cake tin and bake for an hour, until a skewer comes out clean (check after 45 minutes – you may have to cover with foil to prevent burning, or it may need a less than an hour, depending on your oven).

Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a rack and when cold remove from the tin and decorate with strips of orange peel or coarsely grated zest or leave it in its beautiful, unadorned darkly natural state.