Almond orange cake with mascarpone icing and almond praline

Place the whole oranges in a large saucepan, cover them with water and bring to the boil. Simmer the oranges for about 1½ hours, or until they are soft. Drain the oranges, cut them into quarters and remove any pips. Place the quarters into the bowl of a food processor and whizz until thick and pulpy. Set the pulp aside and reserve 2 teaspoons for the icing.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line the base and sides of a deep-sided 24cm baking tin with baking paper. Spray with spray oil.

Place the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat them on medium-high until they are pale and thick, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the caster sugar and vanilla essence, then fold in the orange pulp, almonds and baking powder. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake the cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

To make the praline, place the almonds on a piece of baking paper on top of the kitchen bench. In a small pan, heat the sugar and water and bring to the boil. Continue to boil the sugar mixture until it is a golden colour, about 3-5 minutes. Pour the sugar syrup over the almonds and leave the praline to cool.

Break the praline into small pieces, place them in the bowl of a food processor and whizz until the praline resembles chunky breadcrumbs.

To make the icing, combine the mascarpone, icing sugar and the reserved 2 teaspoons of orange pulp and mix until combined. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and dust the top with the crumbed praline.