Citrus Pulp Cake

At this time of the year there is a lot of citrus around; lemonades, oranges, grapefruit, limes, uglifuit, mandarins, lemons and soon the tangelos will be ready, too. I don’t need to talk about the benefits of Vitamin C, but I don’t think it is a coincidence that these delicious sources of it are ready to eat at the time of year we need it most.

As a family we plan all year around for the citrus harvest by cleaning bottles, letting them properly dry, and then storing them away for what we call “Family Juicing Day”. If you have extra citrus this year, please let me know as I keep a register of families who like to make their own juice and can connect you up mawera@thewildcook.co.nz
 
Juice will keep in the freezer for months at time. It is great for putting in your chilli bin, frozen for camping trips, school trips and picnics. I always make a couple of smaller bottles of lemon, lime and lemonade juices for making Whisky Sours for my husband when Man ‘Flu hits our home. Small bottles of frozen juice are great for cooling kids lunch boxes in the summer months, too.

There are lots of devices you can use for juicing, and believe me, over the years we have tried them all; the best of all has been the spinning juicer on our food processor and the worst of all is the sort that grinds everything to a pulp to extract the juice. Using the food processor leaves you with a fresh, bright juice that feels and tastes crisp on the palate as you drink it. We take that juice and then strain out the solid parts before bottling in our nice, clean bottles and freezing it. If you use one of those grinding machines you have to peel the fruit and get as much pith off as possible or you end up with a cloudy juice with the flavour of the pith and skin in your juice. The other benefit of using a food processor is that if you don’t have one yet, you can buy one for making juice and use if for making all sorts of things, including the easiest, best ever chocolate cake that I will share in a couple of weeks.

So, what to do with the pulp… well, cake of course! The pulp freezes perfectly for future cakes, too. It is best not to add too much into your compost as it can cause the compost to become very acidic.

Kia makona, Mawera x

Citrus Pulp Cake
1c seedless citrus pulp
1/3c rice bran oil or olive oil
2c standard flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½  tsp baking soda
½  tsp salt
4 large (size 7) eggs
1 ½ c sugar
Icing sugar for decoration
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Lightly grease a 22cm spring-form tin.
Place orange pulp and oil in a bowl, beat until blended
Mix together the flour, baking powder and soda and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs until they are light and fluffy and then slowly add in the sugar.
Begin to add the egg mixture in three parts alternating with the orange mixture just stirring until combined. (Be careful not to over mix which will deflate the eggs and create a dense cake.)
Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or just until a cake tester comes out clean.
While the cake is still hot, use a sieve to cover cake top with icing sugar.
Cool before slicing and serve with whipped cream or yoghurt on the side, with a sprinkle of zest.

Whisky Sours (BOP Style)
30mls of lemon, lime or lemonade juice
30mls of Schweppes Classic Dry Lemonade
60mls of whisky or bourbon
Ice
On observing first signs of Man ‘Flu, mix all ingredients and serve in a chilled class.