birthday

I have been struggling to find anything interesting to say this week...maybe I'm just a bit homesick and don't want to ramble on about it......just a few weeks now until we leave :)...... today is my loved one's birthday and I wanted to make a nice cake, so his favourite choice is flourless orange cake. I have been looking for sometime for almond meal and I finally found it a few weeks ago. I bought it and have been squirrelling it away until this morning. I found a recipe online, which can always be dodgy.... just because it says it's 'easy and delicious' doesnt always mean that it is....BUT...although this one looked complicated, after a few reads it made sense and now, after making it I can attest it is easy and delicious!! I got it from taste.com.au and here it is:
Ingredients
Melted butter, to grease
2 oranges
3 eggs
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
300g (3 cups) almond meal
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
Orange Syrup
1 orange
155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
Method
Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a round 22cm (base measurement) springform pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line base with non-stick baking paper.
Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return to pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes (this will reduce the bitterness of the peel). Refresh under cold water. Drain. Coarsely chop oranges. Remove and discard any seeds.
Place the orange in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.
Use an electric beater to whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick and pale. Add the orange, almond meal and baking powder and gently fold until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
Meanwhile, to make the orange syrup, use a zester to remove the rind from the orange. (Alternatively, use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind from orange. Use a small sharp knife to remove white pith. Cut rind into thin strips.) Juice orange.
Place rind in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Drain. Return to pan with orange juice and sugar. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.
Turn cake onto a serving plate. Use a skewer to gently prick the top. Spoon over syrup. Cut into wedges to serve.

I dont have a big tin so I used a muffin tin and made mini cakes (takes about 15mins on 170 degrees). They turned out SO well!!

A muffin sized mini cake was a bit too small to put all the lettered candles spelling Happy Birthday so I made a slightly bigger one so we will wait until later to see how many fit :)...I also wrote and illustrated a small book for his gift and had it printed at Blurb which has yet to arrive although it has been shipped. I can't wait to see how it looks...now I have a lot more ideas about these little custom books. Coming up with a truly original idea takes a lot of hard work. I think I worked on this birthday book idea over 4 or 5 months....and scrapped at least 4 works in progress....