Recipe Bittersweet Gin Cake

[Hemulen]

Bittersweet Gin Cake

Preparation: 2 hours +
Serves 6-8

Edits in orange.

Ingredients

1 orange
5 mandarins (or clementines or tangerines)
0,5 dl gin
100 g salted butter, melted and cooled
2 dl caster sugar
3 - (4) teaspoons cinnamon
2 - (3) teaspoons vanilla sugar
3 dl (- 3,5 dl) plain flour
0,5 dl (- 1 dl) ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 (- 2) eggs

Steam the unpeeled citrus fruit for 60 min. Cut in half, discard the seeds and possible stems but don’t peel. Puree in the mixer. Line a cake tin or bread tin with butter and crushed almonds. Pour the mush in a large bowl. Mix the baking powder with flour. Add the gin, spices, butter, flour and egg carefully and mix well. Pour the dough in the lined tin and bake (200°C, better 150-175°C) for 50 - 60 min (1,5 - 2 hours) until done. Serve with tea or coffee. Edit: Let set for 30 min before slicing as the dough is moist and fruity. When using the 200°C temperature, I left the cake in the oven for another hour (in addition to a 35 min bake) as I had to make the recipe photo shoot ahead of time and rush to a matinée concert. I just turned the oven off and left the cake in the oven. It didn't burn and turned out to be moist and 'jammy' because of the quantity of fruit. The amount of flour and eggs has to be adjusted to the size and quantity of the fruit.

 

[Morning Glory]

It looks delectable! I love the use of the whole tangerine, peel and all. Its ringing bells with me. I know I used this technique in one of my own recipes but I'm damned if I can remember what it was!

 

[epicuric]

I am having a go at making this today, once I have got my head round 'deci-litres' My brain still hasn't recovered from converting tablespoons of butter in a US recipe last week!

 

[Hemulen]

^ Epicuric, a pint is ~5 dl, a quart is ~11,4 dl, a fluid ounce is ~0,3 dl, 1 dl of sugar equals 85 g or ~0,2 pounds and 1 dl of plain flour equals 52 g or ~0,1 pounds, if it helps. Wikipedia, this and several 'x to x' converters might be of help too.

It looks delectable! I love the use of the whole tangerine, peel and all. Its ringing bells with me. I know I used this technique in one of my own recipes but I'm damned if I can remember what it was!

Please try to find your recipe! I'm not a big fan of e.g. the traditional orange marmalade with peel but when citrus fruit is soundly steamed and baked, the bitter flavor of peels subsides.

I remember running to a cake recipe with whole oranges when surfing on the net during the almond challenge but I made this recipe up as I had a dollop of gin in the bottle, a few slightly leathery mandarins + a lorn orange on the fruit plate and just about 0,5 dl of almond flour in a sachet taken home from the countryside. The 'butter' I used was a vegetable margarine-butter mix suitable for cooking with 30% less fat.

I might add some more flour or ground almonds (maybe 0,5 dl), a fourth teaspoon of cinnamon and a third teaspoon of vanilla sugar when baking this cake in the future. The flavor of gin goes well with citrus fruit (as known from G&T and the delicious juniper-red grapefruit union). In fact, the flavor of gin is quite near to orange peel. The scent in our flat is wonderful and Christmassy: I noticed it already in the downstairs foyer when returning from the concert.

 

[Morning Glory]

^ Epicuric, a pint is ~5 dl, a quart is ~11,4 dl, a fluid ounce is ~0,3 dl, 1 dl of sugar equals 85 g or ~0,2 pounds and 1 dl of plain flour equals 52 g or ~0,1 pounds, if it helps. Wikipedia, this and several 'x to x' converters might be of help too.

We use grams (for weight) and ml & litres (for liquid) but not decilitres in the UK.

Please try to find your recipe! I'm not a big fan of e.g. the traditional orange marmalade with peel but when citrus fruit is soundly steamed and baked, the bitter flavor of peels subsides.

I have a feeling this was not a cake recipe. I rarely make cakes as I rarely eat sweet things. Its most likely a savoury recipe of some kind...

 

[Morning Glory]

Far as I can tell 1dl = 100g

Why are some of you measures for dry goods in grams and some in dl? Is there a convention of when to do this in Finland? Just curious...

 

[TastyReuben]

We use grams and ml & litres but not decilitres in the UK.

Oh, let's see...if my 7th grade math class was any good, "deci" has to do with 10, so a deciliter must be 10 liters, therefore ipso facto, a .5 deciliter is equal to 5 liters of gin for this recipe. Simple!

There you go, epicuric, I worked it out for you. Sounds like the cake batter will be a bit on the thin side, though.

 

[Hemulen]

Oh, let's see...if my 7th grade math class was any good, "deci" has to do with 10, so a deciliter must be 10 liters, therefore ipso facto, a .5 deciliter is equal to 5 liters of gin for this recipe. Simple!

There you go, epicuric, I worked it out for you. Sounds like the cake batter will be a bit on the thin side, though.

Great math, TR!

It's good to notice that 1dl (volume) of e.g. water, flour or sugar aren't equal in weight - just volume-wise. I don't own a kitchen scale so I tend to use volumes in my recipes.

0,5 dl gin = 5 cl gin = 50 ml gin = 1 large portion (a normal restaurant serving of strong alcohol is 4 cl = 40 ml)

 

[epicuric]

Well, it's in the oven. The mixture did seen a little loose TastyReuben.

Slightly puzzled about the cooking time - recipe says 50 - 60 min, but in text below you mention 35 mins. I've set the time for 50, and will poke it to see what happens.

 

[epicuric]

50 ml gin = 1 large portion

I don't think I'll be popping round to your house for a gin & tonic

 

[Hemulen]

Well, it's in the oven. The mixture did seen a little loose TastyReuben.

Slightly puzzled about the cooking time - recipe says 50 - 60 min, but in text below you mention 35 mins. I've set the time for 50, and will poke it to see what happens.

0,5 dl = 50 ml. 1 ml (x 10) = 1 cl (x 10) = 1 dl (x 10) = 1 liter/litre. They are volumes so every ingredient might differ in weight. I mentioned 35 min because I had to leave early and leave the cake in the oven. As I wrote, I switched the oven off at 35 min (I left to a concert) but it stayed in the oven for a good 1,5 hours - and didn't burn.

 

[epicuric]

0,5 dl = 50 ml! 1 ml (x 10)= 1 cl (x 10) = 1 dl (x 10) = 1 liter/litre. They are volumes so every ingredient might differ in weight! I mentioned 35 min because I had to leave early and leave the cake in the oven. As I wrote, I switched the oven off at 35 min (I left to a concert) but it stayed in the oven for a good 1,5 hours - and didn't burn.

Well, the smells coming from the oven are fantastic. The whole house is smelling like Christmas! I will post a photo later.

 

[Hemulen]

I don't think I'll be popping round to your house for a gin & tonic

(Edited text
Not likely. I'm popping around if I have more than one serving (4 cl). It may be best if you drunkards suck the bottle somewhere else.

 

[Hemulen]

Far as I can tell 1dl = 100g

Why are some of you measures for dry goods in grams and some in dl? Is there a convention of when to do this in Finland? Just curious...

In Finland butter is mainly sold in 500 g pieces (with 50 g line markings) so it's convenient to use grams in terms of butter. Other ingredients are in deciliters (dl) or spoonfuls (which aren't that precise). Just multiply by 100 to convert dl into ml. All batchers/measuring dishes have dl (deciliter/decilitre) markings in Finland. On this forum, I'll try to use milliliters and grams in the future .

As butter is a dairy product (almost equal to whole milk and thus almost equal to water in volume), 100 g butter is pretty much the same in milliliters: 106 ml (1,06 dl). Just remember that when other ingredients are concerned, the volume might be something completely different in weight.

1 dl (100 ml) of water weighs 100 g. 1 dl (100 ml) of sugar weighs 85 g. 1 dl (100 ml) of plain flour weighs about 52 g and so on.

 

[Morning Glory]

1 dl (100 ml) of water weighs 100 g. 1 dl (100 ml) of sugar weighs 85 g. 1 dl (100 ml) of plain flour weighs about 52 g and so on.

Oh my! I hope epicuric got the measurements correct.