Orange sponge cake with orange butter filling, apricot glaze and almonds

Grate the rind from one orange, then halve and juice it and strain the juice.

Preheat the oven to 350F and butter and flour a cake pan.

Beat 114 g sugar gradually into four large egg yolks with an electric beater until it reaches the ribbon stage, thickened and pale yellow.

Add the orange peel, 60 ml orange juice and a pinch of salt and beat until light and foamy.

Sift 100 g cake flour in and beat it in quickly.

Beat the whites of four eggs with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, adding a little cream of tartar at the foamy stage to stabilise them.

Add 1 tablespoon sugar gradually and beat to stiff peaks.

Stir a little of the meringue into the batter, then fold in the rest gently, incorporating everything from the bottom of the bowl.

Pour immediately into the cake tin and run the mixture up the rim all around.

Bake on the middle rack 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool six to eight minutes.

Run a knife around the edge and turn the cake out onto a rack, scraping away any bits that stick.

Cool completely, about one to two hours.

For the orange butter filling, put all the ingredients in a saucepan together: 284 g sugar, 85 g softened butter, 2 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks, the rind of an orange, 60 ml orange juice and about a tablespoon of Cointreau.

Whisk over low heat to between 160 and 163F.

Set the pan into a pan of cold water and keep whisking; it should thicken like honey as it cools. It stayed syrupy rather than setting as a filling.

Split the cooled cake in half with a serrated knife.

Spread enough orange butter filling on the lower layer to make a one eighth inch coating, set the top layer on and brush off any crumbs.

Pass the apricot jam through a sieve.

Combine 120 ml of the sieved apricot jam with 2 tablespoons sugar and heat over moderately high heat, stirring, for two to three minutes until it reaches 225F.

Paint the cake all over with the apricot glaze.

Toast 5 ounces of almonds on a baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring, then cool completely.

Pulverize the almonds on high speed for 30 seconds.

Press the almonds onto the sides of the cake; not more than a quarter of them will adhere, but a lot is needed to work with.

Variation, optional: sprinkle a little of the almonds on top as well and move the cake to a clean plate.

Variation, optional glazed orange peel: peel the longest strips of orange peel you can and cut them into strips.

Simmer the peels in water 10 to 15 minutes, drop them into cold water to refresh, then dry them.

Bring about three tablespoons of cane sugar and roughly a cup of water to a boil.

Add the orange peel and vanilla and simmer 10 minutes.

Lift the peels out of the syrup, let them cool about 30 seconds and straighten them out.

Arrange the peels in a pile on top of the cake.