Macadamia Marmalade cake

I have been guarding my prized stash of Macadamia nuts for almost a year now. I found these delicate creamy nuts in Sugarland last year when Indira took me on a foodie tour at the Whole foods market. I had bookmarked several recipes using Macadamia nuts to be tried. Somehow I never got around trying any of those and the nuts continued to lurk around in my freezer.

I hardly make resolutions, but this year I have resolved to use up all the ‘treasured ingredients’ I have been collecting from my various trips to different places; now it was the turn of the Macadamia nuts. The blog has been starving for quite some time now and needed some food. Life has been a roller coaster for the past few months and to add to that a few health concerns, sick little ones and the last straw –my old haggard camera dying on me! I have been handicapped photographically for the past 2 months and have resorted to ‘phonography’ for the time being. So please pardon the pictures in this post- they have been taken from my cellphone!

I have been toying with the idea of investing in a good DSLR camera for some time now (read 2 years) . Left with little choice now the DSLR has been ordered and will be with me in a couple of days! You know what they say-Every dark cloud has a silver lining!

I also thought a baking partner would be fun and a great motivation to return and feed the blog. Who better than my friend and a fabulous food blogger Aparna to bake together? Aparna too was game for it.A few messages later we were set to make this delectable ‘Macadamia Marmalade cake’. Apart from our fascination for Macadamia nuts the tangy Marmalade also attracted both of us to this recipe. We gave ourselves time till today to bake the cake and so I had to post it even if it meant taking pictures with my cell phone 🙂

I made this cake when we were visiting our friends for a casual weekend dinner at their place last night. The cake was light and has a fabulous crumb. The zesty marmalade added a lovely citrusy tang to the mildly sweet cake and the creamy ,delicately flavored nuts the required crunch.

I served the cake with vanilla ice-cream for dessert but you can have it as it is for a tea time snack.

Here’s the recipe for the Macadamia Marmalade cake:

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup semolina
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 180g butter  (I used Amul)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk  (I substituted with ½ cup milk and 1 tsp vinegar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup marmalade (I used orange)
• 100g macadamias, chopped

Method

Grease a 17cm x 27cm x 4cm  tin(I used 17 x27x3 cm)) Line base and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to moderate, 180ºC.

Sift flour into a large bowl.

Add the semolina and ground almonds. Make a well in the centre.

Melt butter and sugar in a bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan. The sugar does not need to dissolve completely. Cool slightly. Pour mixture into the well.

Add the buttermilk and eggs. Stir to combine.

Pour mixture into the prepared tin.

Heat the marmalade in a bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan until warm and slightly runny.

Stir in the macadamias.

Spoon marmalade mixture over the surface of the cake. If the marmalade is too hot, it will sink into the cake mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre.(Mine took 45 minutes)

Leave cake in the tin to cool.

This cake will keep for up to two weeks stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Mine already got over! 🙂

See Aparna’s eggless version of the cake here