Makes 20cm cake

• jumbo eggs, separated
• 200g castor sugar
• ¼ tsp orange blossom water or orange essence
• 1 cup olive oil
• Juice and grated zest of 1 orange
• 200g ricotta cheese, crumbled
• 180g ground almonds
• 140g cake wheat flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

To serve

• Orange slices to garnish
• Icing sugar to dust

1 Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Grease and line a deep 23cm springform cake tin. 2. Place the egg yolks, sugar and orange blossom water or orange essence in a bowl. Beat with an electric beater until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, add the olive oil, orange juice and zest and ricotta, whisk to combine, then stir in the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt.
2 Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin slightly, then remove from tin to cool completely on a rack.
3 To serve: Garnish with orange slices and dust with icing sugar.

Words and image: Fairlady magazine