Orange and almond cake

This cake, which is more like a dessert than a cake, is a traditional dish of the Sephardi Jews. The recipe comes from Claudia Roden’s magnificent A Book of Middle Eastern Food. I make it following Claudia’s recipe, but also with blood oranges or with four aromatic mandarins, following the suggestion of a good friend, Dr Joy Lake, at whose home in Sydney I have often eaten it.