Recipe: Angellica Bell's Mini Orange Friands

I love oranges and I especially love that orange flavour in cakes.

For those who aren't already in the know, friands are basically small almond cakes which are popular in Australia and New Zealand and are closely related to the French financier.

The main ingredients are ground almonds, egg whites, butter, icing sugar. The icing on the cake is simply mixing the icing sugar with orange juice!

Ingredients

5 large egg whites

190 g self-raising flour

150 g icing sugar

1 tsp baking powder

120 g ground almonds

200 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

zest of two oranges

For the icing

100 g icing sugar

juice of an orange

Method

1. Pop the oven on to 170ºC.

2. Grease a 12-hole loose-bottom tray so the cakes can pop out easily.

3. Next, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a mixer (or with an electric whisk) in a large mixing bowl.

4. Now sift your flour, icing sugar, baking powder and ground almonds together in a separate bowl. Then add the dry ingredients to the beaten egg whites, folding them in carefully to make sure you don’t knock out too much air.

5. Lastly, add the melted butter and orange zest and carefully combine all the ingredients.

6. Half-fill each hole of the prepared tin with mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden. Make sure you keep an eye on them.

7. Once they are done, let them cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

8. Once your mini friands have cooled to room temperature, whisk your icing sugar (sift if it’s lumpy), with some of orange juice. Keep adding the juice until you have a thick glossy icing.

9. To finish your cakes off, coat thin strips of orange zest with caster sugar. Leave them on a kitchen towel for a bit, then use them to decorate the cakes.

10. Final instruction: enjoy!

Buy Angellica Bell's book 'Fantastic Eats! (& How to Cook Them)'

When is Angellica Bell on Scala Radio?

Listen to Angellica Bell's Saturday Breakfast Show on Scala Radio from 7am via the Scala Radio website, app, DAB or Sky 0216.

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