This recipe accompanies this column

Ingredients

Melted butter for greasing the cake tin

180 g softened butter

180 g castor sugar

3 XL eggs

125 g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 g coarsely salted roasted macadamias, ground in a food processor

3 or 4 naartjies, sliced thinly (or as much as will cover the base and sides of the tin)

Zest of 1 naartjie

Pinch of ground cloves

80 ml full cream milk

Method

Make the naartjie syrup (recipe below) and keep it warm.

Preheat the oven to 180℃ or 190℃. (My gas oven needs higher; you be the judge of yours.)

Grease a springform cake tin on the bottom and sides with melted butter.

Line the sides and bottom of the tin with the naartjie slices. (You can push them back to the sides when you spoon in the cake batter.)

Cream the butter and castor sugar together in a baking bowl with a wooden spoon or whisk until pale.

Sift the flour with the baking powder. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Fold in the following ingredients in two batches, i.e. half of them first, then half of them again:

First fold in half of the flour, then half of the ground macadamias, the pinch of cloves, the grated naartjie zest, half of the milk, and mix it lightly. Don’t overwork it.

Now fold in the rest of the flour, the remaining ground macadamias, and the remaining milk, until just combined. No need for more zest or cloves.

Spoon into the prepared cake tin, pushing the batter against the naartjie slices to secure them against the sides.

Bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes in the tin before releasing the springform catch and turning it out onto a wire rack.

Just like a tarte tatin, the bottom of the cake becomes the top.

Quickly reheat the naartjie syrup glaze and pour it over the top.

For the naartjie syrup glaze:

⅔ cup naartjie juice

90 g castor sugar

Combine ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes until the syrup turns fairly thick and sticky; if it’s still very runny, cook it a bit longer. It needs to be like hot jam. Keep aside. Reheat before pouring it on top of the turned out cake while it is still warm. DM/TGIFood 

To enquire about Tony Jackman’s book, foodSTUFF (Human & Rousseau) please email him at [email protected] 

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