Orange Savarin

The Savarin is named after the famous French politician and lawyer, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who gained fame as an epicure and gastronome. It is a yeasted cake that is drenched in a sugar syrup with a dash of rum, and filled with cream and fruit. Adapted from "The Complete Book of Home Baking" by Mary Norwak.

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 2 hours 25 mins

Serves: 12 servings

Collect it:

1. Savarin mould or a 9" (23 cm) Bundt cake pan

2. Yeast Starter:

• 50 gms All purpose flour/Maida

• 1 tsp granulated sugar

• 4 tsp dried yeast

• 90 ml warm milk (I used almond milk)

3. Cake

• 175 gms All purpose flour/Maida

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 4 large eggs

• 113 gms butter, softened

• 2 tbsp sugar

4. Orange Syrup

• 550 gms sugar

• 400 ml water

• 75 ml rum

• 2 oranges, zested and juiced

5. Cream filling

• Whipped cream

• Assorted fruits and berries: I used cherries and oranges.

Make it:

Grease a Savarin mould or a 9" (23 cm) Bundt cake pan.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, yeast and warm milk and put aside until nice and frothy, about 20 to 30 minutes. (the milk should be warm to touch else the yeast will commit suicide!)

Once the yeast mixture is ready, add all the ingredients listed under “cake” and beat thoroughly for about 4 minutes.

Fill the mould with the batter. Cover with cling film/wrap. Leave to rise until doubled in size. It should take about 40 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃.

Once the cake batter has risen double its size, place in the oven.

Bake until deep golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.

Once baked, let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then turn out on to a wire rack and cool completely. With a skewer poke holes into the cake.

Prepare the Orange syrup

Zest the oranges by using a peeler to peel large strips of the zest. Juice the oranges after zesting.

Place the sugar, water, zest strips and orange juice in a pan and bring to boil on low heat.

Make sure the sugar is dissolved.

When the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil, boil for 1 minute and pull off the heat. Add rum.

Remove the zest carefully. Keep aside half the syrup.

Pour the hot syrup into the same mould / pan. Now gently ease the cake back into the mould / pan. Pour the remaining syrup on top of the cake, a little at a time. This will take time. The cake will soak in the syrup but you will have to keep spooning and pouring and re-pouring the syrup until almost all is soaked through. The syrup soaking part takes a few minutes. The cake is slow to absorb but it will take almost all the syrup.

Once the cake is soaked with the syrup, turn it on to a serving plate. Make sure your serving plate is large enough to hold excess syrup!

You can fill the centre with cream and decorate with fruit.