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Orange & Saffron Syrup Cake

The citrus syrup makes for a wonderfully moist cake - great for afternoon tea or a dinner-party dessert

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and saffron work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 15 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

CUTS INTO 8 SLICES
Prep20 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 23cm (9 inch) round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.

  2. Finely grate the zest of both oranges. Squeeze the juice of one orange into a small saucepan and cut the other orange into segments for serving.

  3. Add the icing sugar and saffron threads to the orange juice in the saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the saffron colours the syrup. Keep warm.

  4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and golden caster sugar for 3 to 4 minutes until pale and thick. Stir in half the orange zest.

  5. Slowly drizzle in the light olive oil while whisking until combined.

  6. Mix the ground hazelnuts, semolina or polenta and baking powder together, then fold them gently into the egg mixture until just combined. Fold in the remaining zest.

  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden, springy and set in the centre, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The centre must reach 160°F (71°C) for the eggs to be fully cooked.

  8. Immediately spoon the warm syrup evenly over the hot cake. Leave it to soak in and cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a plate and cool completely before slicing into 8 pieces.

  9. Serve each slice topped with orange segments and a spoonful of Greek yogurt or crème fraîche, if using.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Semolina + saffrontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + saffrontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + yogurttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Orange + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Olive + saffrontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the hazelnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (semolina, sugar, orange, egg, olive, saffron, yogurt):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Pistachiobetter flavor fit
  3. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  4. Hazelnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against semolina, sugar, orange, egg, olive, saffron, yogurt. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).