ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE

Karen Dudley of The Kitchen in Cape Town has a love of food and generosity of spirit that make their way straight onto your plate.

MAKES 1 MEDIUM CAKE

Preparation: 20 min

Cooking: 40-45 min

1 fresh orange

1 carrot

80g plain flour

2,5ml (½t) baking powder

pinch of sea salt

4 eggs, separated

125ml (½c) oil

2,5ml (½t) vanilla extract

or essence

1ml (¼t) cream of tartar

150g castor sugar

ICING

400g butter

250g dark chocolate

120ml milk

60g cocoa powder

125ml (½c) icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 165°C. Grease a 23cm spring-form cake tin with nonstick spray and line with baking paper.

1 Boil the orange and carrot together and pulse in a food processor until smooth.

2 In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt.

3 In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the oil, add the vanilla extract or essence and orange mixture and whisk.

4 Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

5 Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle in the sugar and whisk for 20 seconds.

Fold the egg whites into the batter in two batches.

6 Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden and firm. Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin, remove and cool completely on a rack.

7 Icing Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Whisk in the milk, cocoa powder and icing sugar until well incorporated. Immediately spread the icing over the cooled cake.