Blood orange, blossom & pomegranate cake

This has a triple hit of blood orange – a whole boiled fruit whizzed into the cake batter, candied slices to adorn and a sticky syrup to drench it in.

▪ Serves 8-10 ▪ Prep 35 mins ▪ Cook 1 hr 45 mins

6 blood oranges, 3 whole, 3 juiced

250g butter, softened

50g honey, plus 2 tbsp

300g golden caster sugar

200g self-raising flour

100g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tbsp orange blossom water, plus 1 tsp 140g Greek yogurt, plus extra to serve 1 small pomegranate, halved

1 Cover one of the whole oranges with water in a saucepan and bring to the boil for a couple of minutes. Get rid of the water and start again, this time simmering for 40 mins until the orange is really soft. When cool enough to handle, cut in half and remove all the pips. This can be done up to a day ahead.

2 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and butter a 22cm round cake tin. Drizzle the 2 tbsp of honey over the base of the tin, then slice the remaining whole oranges and arrange the slices over the honey.

3 Put the boiled orange in a food processor and whizz to a purée. Beat the remaining butter, 200g of the sugar, the honey, flour, almonds, baking powder, eggs, 1 tbsp orange blossom water and yogurt until smooth. Stir in the puréed orange and scrape into the tin, being careful not to dislodge the fruit. Bake for 55 mins until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then turn out onto a serving plate.

4 Tip the blood orange juice, the remaining sugar and 1 tsp orange blossom water into a saucepan. Bubble for 5 mins until thickened slightly. Remove the pomegranate seeds and stir them into the syrup while it cools. Drizzle the cake with the syrup and enjoy warm or at room temperature with Greek yogurt.

PER SERVING 559 kcals, fat 30g, saturates 15g, carbs 61g, sugars 46g, fibre 3g, protein 9g, salt 0.8g