Monday 12 January 2015

Spanish saffron cake



Saffron is such a glorious spice, it adds a beautiful colour and a distinct flavour to dishes. It is expensive, but you only need a pinch. I've been rummaging through my old magazine clippings, and came across a Spanish saffron tea bread recipe from BBC Good Food (March 2000).
I decided to bake it as a cake rather than bread-shaped, and also omitted the mixed peel, as my older son doesn't like "bits" in cakes. He would pick them all out and throw, and as I planned to put a slice of cake in his lunch box, I made it plain.



Put a pinch of saffron threads in a bowl of hot milk (150ml), cover it with the lid, and let it infuse the milk. Leave it for an hour to acquire a deep yellow colour.
In a big mixing bowl beat 2 eggs with 140g caster sugar and zest from 1 orange. Add 6tbsp of orange juice (the magazine suggests juice from 2 oranges, but maybe they used small-sized ones, as I used one orange, and there were about 7tbsp of juice). Add the ground almonds (100g), 350g self-raising flour and mix well. Add the melted butter (175g). The magazine suggests rubbing the cold butter with flour, but I just melted it to speed up the process.
At the last stage add the milk with saffron. mix well. Pour the cake batter in a round cake tin or loaf tin if you prefer and place it in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 45+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden skewer.
Take the tin out, and let the cake cool before glazing with a mix of icing sugar and orange juice, or pour some honey over.



This is a lovely cake, crumbly and fluffy.
Apparently it improves with keeping. If you can keep it for 2 days before slicing, the depth of flavour is more pronounced. Not that we would know, as I don't think we'll have much left for tomorrow.


Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen has launched a new linky called #RecipeClippings, which invites you to go through your recipe collection (either organised in files, or piled all over the house like in my case) and choose a recipe to recreate. So, I'm sending this recipe to Janice's exciting challenge.


Also adding this post to #Bakeoftheweek linky run by Helen at Casa Costello.

Casa Costello

12 comments:

  1. i have never even tried a safron cake so not sure if a spanish is different to any other but i certainly tink it sounds fabulous

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    1. Thank you Lisa! I love Cornish saffron cake, we always buy one or two when we stay there in summer, so tasty.

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  2. This looks amazing! I imagine the texture comes out kind of madeira-esque?

    Audacity of Food

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    1. Yes, it is quite similar, though a bit grainier as it has ground almonds.

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  3. What an interesting cake, Saffron Cake always reminds me of Cornwall, I guess it will be popular around the coasts where the spices came in by ship. Thank you for joining me for #RecipeClippings lovely to see those clippings getting made!

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    1. Thank you for running an exciting foodie challenge.

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  4. so beatifully made saffrom cake dear

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  5. Absolutely stunning - the shine is incredible. I'm totally in agreement with the no mixed peel thing too! Thanks loads for joining in with #Bakeoftheweek New linky open now x

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    1. Thank you Helen! I think I have another post ready for the new linky

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  6. Just read about your saffron cake on twitter.= which brought me to your blog I think I might have started the only saffron plantation in Yorkshire as I hope to serve up a breakfast dish with saffron in for guests who stay with us at www.carrhousefarm.co.uk.

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    1. Thank you Anna! I always associate the saffron with warmer climes. Good luck with your project!

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