Almond and Orange Marble Cake

Something a bit different for today. A deliciously moist marble cake. I'm a sucker for a marble cake. They are old fashioned and homey and the type of things that nannas make. All my favourite things.

When I was young, one of my jobs was to make a cake each week. It went into lunch boxes and that sort of thing. Bored with with making the same old butter cake over and over again I used to find ways to jazz it up. One way was to get hold of the food colourings and turn it into a marble cake. Not just any old marble cake either. I'm talking green, purple and yellow. Blue, pink and chocolate. There was no limit to my imagination. So making this marble cake was a trip back in time - kind of.

The recipe can be found here on the BBC website. I found it through a recommendation on the BBC foodchat message boards. These boards are great for tried and true recipes.

Anyway, the cake itself is easy to make. It is lovely and moist. I'm not so sure about the addition of almond essence. I added half the amount, but it was still a bit too much. To me the flavour is very chemical and fake. I have read that almond extract provides a much better flavour, but I have never been able to source it in Canberra.

Next time I would also add more orange zest. As the recipe is, the zest is totally overpowered by the almond essence.

Still I highly recommend this cake. I enjoyed it and will be making it again.